Justin Smoak (1B-TOR) - I'm still not sure Smoak is a top-10 first baseman, though after going 3-for-5 with his 12th homer and four RBI (34 now) on Monday, he probably is. The former elite prospect and Rangers/Mariners flame-out is now batting .288/.353/.564 in his breakout 2017. Smoak entered the game batting .394/.461/.788 against southpaws after posting a .621 OPS, so he's clearly made some adjustments over the offseason. Is he a .900+ OPS guy now? Well his BABIP is reasonable at .289 and he's cut his K% year-over-year from 32.8% to 18.9%. With his prospect pedigree and the bats around him, I'm almost buying what he's done so far this year.
Tommy Kahnle (RP-CHW) - David Robertson got the save on Monday and has a 2.29 ERA, but Kahnle has been the team's best reliever. He pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, fanning two and lowering his ERA to 1.29. Kahnle now has a ridiculous 16.7 K/9 to go with a 2.1 BB/9 and he's seen his velocity tick up this year, with a 97.8 mph average fastball, the third consecutive year that mark has increased. Assuming the White Sox are out of the race by July, there would appear to be a good chance Robertson gets dealt, leaving Kahnle and Nate Jones as the potential replacements. Jones should return from an elbow injury in the next couple weeks, and he will return to a solid 2.31 ERA despite a 1.29 WHIP that is driven by an elevated 4.6 BB/9. Kahnle either way deserves to be rostered right now simply for the strikeouts and potential saves possibility come August.
Edwin Diaz (RP-SEA) - After working through some mechanical issues that saw his ERA get as high as 5.28 and that resulted in his being bumped from the closer role, Diaz is back as a top-tier closer now. Monday Diaz tossed a 1-2-3 ninth innings, including two strikeouts, to record his ninth save of the season. He's now recorded six consecutive scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and that has his ERA back down to 3.80 to go with an 11.4 K/9 and a 5.1 BB/9 that should continue to drop given his 2.6 BB/9 in 2016. Diaz continues to throw in the mid-to-upper 90s, so as long as the walks and home runs continue to come down, his stuff gives him top-10 closer upside.
Ervin Santana (SP-MIN) - Incredibly, the Astros came from down 8-2 in the eighth inning to beat the Twins 16-8. The final stat line for the Twins bullpen: 2 IP, 13 hits, 14 earned runs, 3 walks, and zero strikeouts. That left hard-luck Ervin Santana with the no-decision after allowing just one earned run with six strikeouts over seven innings to lower his ERA to 1.75. Santana entered the game with a 4.27 FIP, so the ERA is clearly going to rise if he keeps pitching as he currently is. His 6.4 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 are actually worse than his career marks in those areas (7.2 and 2.8), so if he pitches to a 4.00 ERA the rest of the way, that's probably a mark that would meet my expectations. He also entered with the game with a .140 BABIP. On the plus side, Santana's 23.4% hard hit rate (pre-Monday) is well below his 29% career mark, so that should help mitigate some of the damage should he be able to maintain anywhere near 25% the rest of the way.
Danny Valencia (1B-SEA) - Valencia is somehow the Seattle everyday first baseman over Dan Vogelbach, so we have to at least take a look at what he's doing. Valencia did go 3-for-5 with a double and RBI Monday to raise his slash to a still-mediocre .253/.318/.395. Meanwhile, Vogelbach is slashing .297/.401/.477 in Triple-A. With Taylor Motter having come back to Earth, Valencia has no real competition for at-bats, though he'll need to build off Monday's game to hold off Vogelbach and other competition. Valencia is a decent cheaper option in DFS when facing southpaws, but outside of AL-only and 16+ team mixed leagues, he's a pretty poor roto option given the low BA and average at best power for a corner position.
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