Corey Dickerson (OF-PIT) Dickerson went 4 for 5 with a double, home run, 3 runs scored and 2 RBIs. Dickerson has now homered in 4 straight games for the Pirates and has hit 5 of his 11 home runs on the season over the past 5 games, after hitting just 6 in the season's first 95. Dickerson was already having a strong, but different type of season before his power surge as he was making contact and hitting for average like he has not yet done before in his career. He has increased his O-contact % from 71.6% to 77.2%, his Z-contact from 75.3% to 87.1% and his overall contact rate up to 82.6% which would represent a career high. In the past 3 games entering Sunday Dickerson's hard contact % was 46.7% well above his 32.9% season mark and still on the rise through Sunday with the 2 additional extra bases and 4-hit effort.
Zack Greinke (SP-ARI) Greinke shut down the Rockies offense Sunday allowing just a 1 run on 2 hits while striking out 13 over 8 innings to improve to 11-5. It seems like with many other strong pitching performances across the NL this year, Greinke's strong season may be getting lost but is actually putting together one of his better seasons with a 9.17 K/9 (10th in the NL) and a 1.70 BB/9 which is the 3rd lowest among qualified NL pitchers. Greinke has held opponents to a .239 batting average against and even when runners have gotten on base vs him he has an 81.5% LOB% - trailing only Jacob DeGrom and Max Scherzer among NL starters. Greinke will take his 11-5 record, 3.05 ERA and 1.06 WHIP into his next scheduled outing Friday in San Diego.
Vince Velasquez (SP-PHI) Velasquez dazzled Sunday tossing 7 shutout innings allowing just 2 hits while striking out 7. Velasquez has how fired 2 scoreless outings in a row in which he's covered 13 innings and allowed just 10 hits, 2 BB and 10 Ks. Velasquez struggled in 2017 with a 4.25 BB/9 and a reduced 8.50 K/9 but has bounced back year. He is sporting a 10.49 K/9 and has cut his BB/9 down to 3.34 BB/9. 2018 has also seen Velasquez bring back his slider usage to his 2016 level, utilizing it at a 13.4% clip year compared to 7.1% last year. Despite Sunday being just his second win since May 22, Velasquez has pitched better than his 4.01 ERA indicates - if you remove the two games where he has allowed 10 and 6 ER he has just a 2.67 ERA on the season. His next outing currently lines up to vs the Reds next weekend.
Sean Rodriguez (2B/SS/OF-PIT) Rodriguez went 2 for 4 with a double, home run and 2 runs scored. He has had a rough 2017 and 2018 since he posted a career season in 2016 with a .270/.349/.510 line and a 128 wrc+. Rodriguez had a white-hot series over the weekend vs the Reds going 6-12 with 2 home runs, 5 RBIs and 6 runs scored picking up starts at 2B while Josh Harrison sat with a hamstring injury. The effort was great for Rodriguez who had been on the DL since June 25 and had been in a brutal 2-38 slump dating back to end of May prior to the injury. Rodriguez has a career high walk rate (13.7%) and a high K rate of 32.2%, although it is down about 5% from last season. He should continue to see the occasional few spot starts per week, but if Harrison misses more time he should lock into an everyday role at 2B and could provide fantasy owners with nice versatility by having the ability to play at 2B, SS and the OF - provided he keeps hitting.
Adam Eaton (OF-WSH) Eaton went 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored Sunday. While he has played in just 62 games with the Nationals over the past 2 seasons due to various injuries he is putting up Eaton-like number this year sporting a .328/.403/.416 line with a slightly inflated .374 BABIP and a 121 wrc+ to go along with a nicely increased line drive % on batted balls (15.1% from last year to 27.1% this year). While he normally hits lefties well (.277 lifetime) he has struggled hitting just .136 in limited PAs this season. Nationals fans will likely not complain if he keeps having 3-hit games like today, but he has not hit for extra bases with just 8 extra base hits leading to a career worst .90 ISO, nor has he been active on the base paths with just 3 steals in 4 tries to date in 2018.
This is just a small sample our daily analysis, join our member area for over 80 daily player updates sent to your inbox every morning and track your team online. Click here for details: https://www.insiderbaseball.com/baseballsample.htm Click here to register: http://www.fantistics.com/salesbaseball.php3
