Aaron Judge, New York Yankees - Judge returned to the lineup for the Yankees on Tuesday and hit second, going 0-for-4 at the plate with a strikeout. This is the first time that Judge has been in the lineup since July26th and it is right in time for the championship rounds of most playoff series. Judge first appeared in a game on the 14th as a defensive replacement but this is the first time he's actually hit for the Yankees since being hit by a pitch. Judge proved that his 2017 season wasn't a fluke as he posted a 156 wRC+ and hit 26 homers in 447 plate appearances. He'll be among the top of OFers drafted next spring.
Willy Adames, Tampa Bay Rays - Adames homered for the 10th time on Tuesday and his strong second half has definitely made him fantasy relevant and shows his upside for next season. After struggling to get things going in the first half (66 wRC+) he's been excellent in the second half raising his wOBA by 100 points and posting a 127 wRC+. While his GB% has jumped by 15% in the second half, his hard hit rate has also jumped by 17% which helped raise his BABIP from .308 to .390.
Jorge Polanco, Minnesota Twins - Polanco has been on fire in September and picked up two more hits, scored twice, and swiped his 5th bag of the season. He's hitting .328 in the month of September (130 wRC+) and he has hit three homers, but the stolen base was his first successful attempt this month in four attempts. Polanco was a huge breakout candidate entering the season before his PED suspension and he'll likely enter as one next season as well.
Josh James, Houston Astros - James got a spot start for the Astros as they look to give some extra rest to starters and he picked up his first career win Tuesday. He allowed just four hits over 5.1 innings and he struck out seven batters while walking two. His ERA over his first 16 innings now sits at 2.81 with a 2.90 FIP. He's striking out 40% of the batters that he's faced while walking under 10% of batters. James struck out 37% of the batters he faced in the minors across two levels and it'll be interesting to see how the Astros rotation shakes out this winter and if he'll be able to crack the rotation entering 2019.'
Blake Snell, Tampa Bay Rays - Snell improved to 20-5 on the season with five shutout innings on Tuesday. He allowed just one hit and walked two while striking out five batters to push his season total to 200. Snell's five shutout innings also pushed his ERA down to under 2.00 for the year. Snell has been incredible this season seeing a jump in his numbers across the board and one of the biggest jumps came in his swinging strike rate which is sitting just under 15%. His contact rate has dropped on pitches both in and out of the zone while maintaining the same batted ball profile which has helped him take off.
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