Edwin Jackson (SP/RP, WAS) - Jackson continued his improbable run of success, tossing a baseline quality start against the Marlins with four walks and five strikeouts. He has a 3.50 ERA across eight starts and four relief appearances this year, but potential streamers should be warned; he has a low .268 BABIP and inflated 78.9% strand rate, so between that and his unimpressive 6.17 K/9 and 3.17 BB/9, he is normalized to a 5.46 FIP that screams "stay away". He has picked up a tick of velocity this year and has a much improved 59% first pitch strike rate that helps legitimize his walk rate continuing to be below his career average of 3.53 BB/9, but much of this success is unsustainable. With such a low K/9, it's easy to avoid him for his next matchup in Milwaukee.
German Marquez (SP, COL) - Marquez fanned 10 Tigers over 6.1 innings, walking only one and allowing three earned on seven hits. He has solid K:BB numbers over his 23 starts with the Rockies, with an 8.57 K/9 and 2.81 BB/9. He has a .305 BABIP that hasn't been destroyed by Coors, and a 4.18 ERA that very closely resembles his 4.10 FIP. He is still primarily fastball/curveball, using his slider and change less than 10% combined. You want to see more of a variety of pitches in general from a starter, although he has started to incorporate his sinker more over his last four starts with mixed results. For the time being he is making it all work well enough to be a back-end option in mixed leagues, but he doesn't have much upside beyond that despite this nice start.
Scott Schebler (OF, CIN) - Schebler hit a grand slam for his 26th home run of the year, finishing 2-4 with 5 RBI. It's nice to see the power back in his bat in August after an injury that took away half his month and a July that saw him post a mere .484 OPS over 95 plate appearances. Whatever was ailing him appears to have been fixed though and he is wiggling his way back into mixed league value. He still isn't hitting lefties well, with a 0.05 BB/K ratio against southpaws and a mediocre .328 wOBA, and that limits his upside. He is still worth rolling out as a OF4/5 in most leagues though now that he appears to be healthy again, so get him back in your lineups and enjoy homers that come with the .262 ISO.
Luke Weaver (SP, STL) - Weaver carved up the Brewers for 10 strikeouts over 5.2 innings, allowing just two runs and a walk. Weaver has been nothing short of terrific over four starts for the Cardinals (and three relief appearances), with a 2.48 ERA, 11.17 K/9, and 2.79 BB/9 spanning 29 innings. It hasn't been luck either, with a .314 BABIP so far while getting 51% ground balls. He does have an obscene 87.7% strand rate however, which is completely unsustainable, but given his other peripherals so far his FIP is still just 3.02. He posted a 2.55 ERA over 77.2 innings at Triple-A this year as well, and is a legit young starter with a changeup that was just dancing in this one (29% whiff rate on the change in this start). With Adam Wainwright out for (probably) the rest of the season, Weaver is very much worth being rolled out in all formats.
Matt Carpenter (1B, STL) - Carpenter hit his 18th homer of the year and drew a walk, scoring twice and driving in two. He has had a very peculiar year given expectations for him, and is hitting well below .270 for the first time in his career. His line on the season is .244/.377/.444, which also indicates both his still strong on-base ability and his surprising lack of power. His .200 ISO is 34 points below what he has averaged over the last two years despite hard contact and pull rates that are similar to those seasons. He has become and extreme fly ball hitter though, perhaps to his detriment, hitting 49% of his batted balls into the air. That's up 6% from last year, and those fly balls are killing his BABIP, which at .277 is 55 points below his career average. This seems unlikely to change at this point in the season, but hopefully next year he gets back to a less extreme distribution of batted balls and regains some of his value.
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