Mitch Moreland (1B-BOS)
Going from Hanley Ramirez to Mitch Moreland as the Red Sox everyday first baseman certainly doesn't seem like losing a whole lot offensively. Forget the whole contract situation and the financial reasons for designating HanRam for assignment. The important thing is Moreland's been great this season. He entered Saturday hitting .318 with 8 home runs and 23 RBIs. He's 15th in average exit velocity and 5th in all of baseball in xwOBA at .450. However, the real key for Moreland, and a big reason why the Red Sox front office was willing to commit to Moreland as more than a platoon player, is he's actually swinging a decent bat against left-handed pitching. Not spectacular. Not even really that good. But decent. And decent is good enough when he's crushing RHPs (.341/.415/.707). On Saturday Moreland faced three different southpaws in four at-bats. He went 2-4 with a double and triple against those same-handed pitchers. Both his extra-base hits were hard line drives that rolled to the wall. That's right in line with his 2018 sample size against LHPs (47% hard hit rate, only 6% soft contact). If he continues to hit lefties hard and produce a decent batted-ball profile, he's going to continue to play every day, which makes him an elite option at the position.
Daniel Mengden (SP-OAK)
Saturday was the very best version of Daniel Mengden. It was everything he normally gives you but to a heightened degree: solid ratios with pitiful strikeout numbers. Mengden delivered a two-hit complete game shutout of the Diamondbacks without allowing any walks but only striking out five batters (three of which were Paul Goldschmidt). The analysts are going to keep pointing to the numbers that belie his impressive ERA and WHIP, such as a career-high 38.5% hard hit rate, SIERA over 4.00 and a career-high contact rate. It doesn't seem to matter though. Mengden just keeps getting it done. Saturday was Mengden's second straight scoreless outing, and he hasn't allowed more than two runs in his last five starts. Yes, the strikeouts are impressively low, but he is getting batters to chase more than usual, not to get strikes but to produce balls in play that reduce in outs. One major difference for Mengden this year as opposed to last year is the defense behind him is significantly better. The A's rank 8th in Fangraphs Defensive Runs Above Average (DEF) in 2018, a vast improvement on last season when Oakland ranked dead last.
Tim Anderson (SS-CHW)
Anderson likes to hit home runs in bunches and he likes to hit in the leadoff spot. He hit two on Saturday, his third multi-home run game of the season. He has a 160 wRC+ hitting 1st in the order but a 86 wRC+ hitting anywhere else. PAGING RICK RENTERIA! Anderson is only 24 years old but continues to improve every season. In fact, the Chicago shortstop is doing everything we wanted him to do. We wanted him to improve his batting EYE from last year's dismal 0.08. Well, he's walking over 8% of the time and striking out nearly 4% less. We wanted him to show more power. Well, his ISO is up to .206. He's on a 30 home run pace. All of this while actually improving in stolen bases. Barring injury, he's well on his way to surpassing his career high of 15 steals from last year and could be on his way to a 30-30 season! In reality, I don't see the 30 homers. I think he's more in the 20-25 range and his 25% hard hit rate combined with a generous 17% HR/FB rate indicate as much. However, his improvements in plate discipline are real and Anderson has evolved into an excellent rotisserie option at the shortstop position.
Jose Ramirez (3B-CLE)
Who's a part of the Jose Ramirez Plus-1 Batting EYE Watch Club?! On Saturday he had two walks and one strikeout. He's well on his way to more walks than strikeouts in 2018 despite increasing his ISO to an incredible .302. Yay for small guys (he's listed at 5'9", 165 lbs)! In fact, JoRam's ISO ranks 6th in all of baseball. Just for reference, Ramirez is sandwiched between Gary Sanchez and Bryce Harper on that ISO leaderboard. It's a strong likelihood his ISO will drop as his 20.3% HR/FB ratio regresses, but he's still stealing bases and a .266 BABIP indicates improvement on his .291 batting average. Ramirez is only 25 years old and a clear-cut 1st round fantasy draft pick moving forward.
Gerrit Cole (SP-HOU); DraftKings: $11,600
Cole costs a lot for a pitcher going up against Cleveland, but the Indians are 18th in wOBA vs. RHP and have a 24% strikeout rate against righties. Cole has the added motivation of the Trevor Bauer rivalry and he's recorded at least 7 strikeouts in each of his last six starts. While everyone else will pay up for Strasburg, Cole has contrarian appeal and a chance to pay dividends.
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