Miguel Andujar, 3B, NYY
The power surge continues for Andujar, who hit his 19th HR of the season on Wednesday in a loss to the Rays. For most of the season, Andujar has been a high-contact, high-average hitter whose power had come in the form of doubles but had a modest 12 HR's through his first 93 games. That has changed recently however as Andujar now has 7 HR's in his last 16 games. He has been lifting the ball a bit more frequently lately with his GB/FB ratio dropping from 1.46 in the first half to 1.08 since the all-star break, so this may not just be a flash in the pan. Andujar may be passing his teammate Gleyber Torres in the running for AL Rookie of the Year, and it looks like he'll be climbing up draft boards or the 2019 season as well.
Melky Cabrera, OF, CLE
Cabrera hit a 2-run HR in a win against the Reds on Wednesday, and has quietly been pretty productive since being recalled from the minors after the all-star break. He is now hitting .311 with a 12.5% K% in 23 games since his recall and has taken over as the everyday RF with Lonnie Chisenhall on the DL. The one thing that has been missing from his game for most of the season is his power, but he does have 2 HR's and 8 RBI in his last 4 games so perhaps he's starting to pick things up. Don't forget that Cabrera is coming off 4 consecutive seasons of hitting at least .270 with double-digit HR's and 70+ runs and RBI. While he won't reach all of those numbers this season, it's not completely out of the question that Cabrera could be worthy of fantasy owners' attention down the stretch.
Mike Leake, SP, SEA
Leake shutout out the A's for 8 innings on Wednesday in a game the Mariners would end up winning in 12 innings. This marks the 6th straight QS for Leake who has a 2.54 ERA and 1.05 WHIP over that stretch. It's one of those periodic streaks that make people think Leake is actually good, but he has still only recorded 25 K's in 39 IP over those 6 starts, which is a typical rate for him. Ultimately, Leake can't be relied upon for an ERA under 4.00 and while he does an excellent job at avoiding walks, his extremely low strikeout rate makes him a poor fantasy option. I know, the Mariners are relying on him for their playoff push, but that's not a good thing.
Cedric Mullins, OF, BAL
Mullins went 2-4 with a 2B and a run scored against he Mets on Wednesday, and is now hitting .400 (8-20) with 4 doubles and 5 runs scored through his first 5 big-league games. Mullins was an excellent contact hitter throughout his MiLB career, and he has kept that up so far in the majors with just 3 K's in his first 24 PA's. He will probably have to start running more if he is going to have fantasy value in 2018 as he stole 21 bases in 108 minor league games this season, but thus far was caught in his only attempt at the big-league level.
Carlos Rodon, SP, CWS
Rodon allowed 3 ER's on 5 hits in 8 IP in a win against the Tigers on Wednesday, good for his 7th consecutive quality start. His ERA now sits at a shiny 2.69 for the season, a significant improvement from the past 3 seasons when his ERA hovered around 4.00. His peripherals, however, have actually declined this season as his 7.17 K/9 is easily a career-low, as are his SwStr% and GB%. He has benefitted from an unsustainable .210 BABIP (career .301) and ultimately his xFIP is a whopping two runs higher than his ERA at 4.84. He's only 25 years old so it's not unreasonable to think that the strikeouts come back a bit, but even so, that doesn't make him much better than a 4.00 ERA pitcher.
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
