Jake Arrieta, SP, CHC
Arrieta was coming off of a July that was easily his best month of the season, and he continued that hot streak by allowing just 1 ER in 7 IP against the Diamondbacks in his first August start. He now has a 2.09 ERA and 0.82 WHIP through 6 starts since July 1. His K% is still below what it was during his Cy Young campaign, and in fact, despite a strong July, he actually only produced a 6.47 K/9 for the month. But his calling card has always been weak contact, and that seems to have returned based on his 18.9% Hard% this past month. If he can continue to avoid weak content like he has been recently, Arrieta should be able to improve yet on his 3.88 ERA for the season.
Starling Marte, OF, PIT
Marte has struggled since returning from his suspension in mid-July, hitting just .237 with 1 XBH through 64 PA's. For the season as a whole, he is now slashing .239/.293/.310 in 27 games. His struggles have been a combination of a high K% (24.4%, after being under 20% each of the past two seasons) and a career-low 22.5% Hard% (lifetime 31.5%). The good news in terms of the contact is that his SwStr% is right in line with previous seasons and his O-Swing% has actually dropped, so we should see the K% regress a bit. In fact, his K% has already improved to a more reasonable 20.3% since his suspension. Even with his struggles to get on base, he has managed to score 10 runs and steal 5 bases through his last 14 games. We shouldn't expect too much in terms of power, but he's good bet to keep producing at a high level in at least those two categories.
Arodys Vizcaino, RP, ATL
Vizcaino picked up his 3rd save of the season on Wednesday and is at least in line for a share of the closing duties in Atlanta right now, along with Jim Johnson. With a 2.62 ERA and a 42:12 K:BB through 38.2 IP so far this season, an argument can be made that Vizcaino should and will end up being the primary closer in Atlanta by the end of the season. The only real knock on him is the recent boost in fly balls, as his FB% has jumped from 29.8% in 2016 to 41.6% this season. This has led to a few more humeruns, as he has already allowed 5 dingers this year compared to only 6 in 94.2 IP throughout his career prior to this season. Still, he's more likely to produce good ratios than some of the other closers that are widely available, such as Brad Zeigler and Tyler Clippard.
Jesse Winker, OF, CIN
With Scott Schebler placed on the DL, Winker would appear to be in line for regular playing time in the Reds' outfield, and he's making the most of it so far, having homered in back to back games since being recalled from the minors. The sudden power from Winker is quite surprising considering that he only hit 7 HR's in 195 games over the past two season's in the minors. It's a small sample size, but through his first 10 games in the majors, Winker had a 50.0% FB% and 44.4% Hard%, numbers which are very conducive to producing solid power numbers. His patience at the plate has been excellent as well, as even with his 2 K's on Wednesday, Winker has a 4:5 K:BB ratio through 30 PA's this season. He's not at all a safe bet, but what he's done so far has been intriguing.
Michael Conforto, OF, NYM
Conforto has a 1.023 OPS against RHP's this season and has been hot recently, hitting .325 with 7 HR's in 19 games since the break. On Thursday, he'll match up against RHP German Marquez in Coors Field. Conforto isn't cheap but the matchups don't get much better than this. DraftKings Value Play Salary $5,300.
This is just a small sample our our daily analysis, join our member area for over 80 player updates daily. Click here for details: https://www.insiderbaseball.com/baseballsample.htmClick here to register: http://www.fantistics.com/salesbaseball.php3
