Josh Donaldson continued his hot August with his 16th HR of the season. This is a sight for sore eyes for Donaldson owners, particularly in keeper leagues, as he is showing he is amongst the game's elites still. Some of his peripherals are off from last year, but given how he's played in August, I'm confident he'll end the season on an upswing (no pun intended).
Justin Smoak connected with his 32nd HR of the season yesterday as part of a 2-for-4 effort. While some others in the AL have slowed down, Smoak has not. As I've said before, his improvements in 2017 look to be completely real and legit as he's posting a career low K% and nearly a career high contact rate. I expect similar results rest of season and expect him to go much earlier off 2018 draft boards.
Alas, Dallas Keuchel returned to form with a 6.2 inning 1 ER 7 K performance. Keuchel said his in-between-starts work heading into Sunday's start is the best he's had since the first couple of months of the season, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reports. It definitely showed yesterday. Keuchel's 2.87 ERA is about three quarter's lower than it should be, but even a mid 3.00's ERA on the Astros should result in plenty of win opportunities for the rest of the season.
Jeremy Hellickson had his worst start as an Oriole, going 5 innings and allowing 6 ER in the loss. The acquisition of Hellickson was interesting for a few reasons, but particularly so because he hasn't been very good this year. Across the board, he's worse than last year in BB/9, SwStr%, SIERA, and GB%. For all these reasons, he's best to be avoided in all formats unless the Orioles have discovered something to turn things around. And if that's the case, I'd let them prove that first.
Kendall Graveman picked up his third win of the season yesterday going 7 innings with 2 ER and 8 strikeouts. It was certainly one of Graveman's better start of what has been a disappointing, albeit brief, season. Despite the strong outing, Graveman has virtually no fantasy relevance given the poor ERA and pedantic K rate of just 5.6 per 9. He induces nearly 50% of balls in play on the ground, but without a better K rate, he'll be subject to the defense behind him, but doesn't typically bode as well in fantasy.
Josh Donaldson continued his hot August with his 16th HR of the season. This is a sight for sore eyes for Donaldson owners, particularly in keeper leagues, as he is showing he is amongst the game's elites still. Some of his peripherals are off from last year, but given how he's played in August, I'm confident he'll end the season on an upswing (no pun intended).
Justin Smoak connected with his 32nd HR of the season yesterday as part of a 2-for-4 effort. While some others in the AL have slowed down, Smoak has not. As I've said before, his improvements in 2017 look to be completely real and legit as he's posting a career low K% and nearly a career high contact rate. I expect similar results rest of season and expect him to go much earlier off 2018 draft boards.
Alas, Dallas Keuchel returned to form with a 6.2 inning 1 ER 7 K performance. Keuchel said his in-between-starts work heading into Sunday's start is the best he's had since the first couple of months of the season, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reports. It definitely showed yesterday. Keuchel's 2.87 ERA is about three quarter's lower than it should be, but even a mid 3.00's ERA on the Astros should result in plenty of win opportunities for the rest of the season.
Jeremy Hellickson had his worst start as an Oriole, going 5 innings and allowing 6 ER in the loss. The acquisition of Hellickson was interesting for a few reasons, but particularly so because he hasn't been very good this year. Across the board, he's worse than last year in BB/9, SwStr%, SIERA, and GB%. For all these reasons, he's best to be avoided in all formats unless the Orioles have discovered something to turn things around. And if that's the case, I'd let them prove that first.
Kendall Graveman picked up his third win of the season yesterday going 7 innings with 2 ER and 8 strikeouts. It was certainly one of Graveman's better start of what has been a disappointing, albeit brief, season. Despite the strong outing, Graveman has virtually no fantasy relevance given the poor ERA and pedantic K rate of just 5.6 per 9. He induces nearly 50% of balls in play on the ground, but without a better K rate, he'll be subject to the defense behind him, but doesn't typically bode as well in fantasy.
