Ketel Marte, 2B, ARI
Marte continued his breakout campaign on Monday evening with his 23rd home run of the season. He finished the night 2 for 4 and tallied three RBI, which gives him 65 for the year. Marte has been crushing the ball all season and he is currently one of the best, if not the best, second baseman by fantasy standards. He is currently batting .320 and leads all major league second baseman in both wOBA (.394) and wRC+ (143). His lack of plate discipline and abnormal HR/FB rate (8.1% higher than his career average in '19) could be seen as red flags, but it's impossible to ignore the current results.
Scooter Gennett, 2B, CIN
Gennett recorded his second consecutive multi-hit game on Monday night against Pittsburgh. He finished the contest 2 for 5 with a double and a pair of strikeouts. After missing the first two months of the season with a groin injury, Gennett has struggled to make it back to form. He is batting just .222 and has yet to hit a home run in his 66 plate appearances thus far. He is clearly not comfortable at the plate yet and his plate discipline has been nothing short of awful. His hefty SwStr% (11.7%) and O-Swing% (42.2%) have him striking out a lot, and walking virtually never. He has struck out 19 times this season and has walked just once; which gives him an abysmal strikeout percentage of 28.8% (9.5% above his career average) and an even worse walk percentage of 1.5%. With so few plate appearances, it's too early to condemn Gennett for the season just yet, however the early signs are certainly not good.
Jon Gray, SP, COL
Gray hurled an impressive 8.0 innings of one-run ball against the vaunted Dodgers offense on Monday evening. Gray allowed just six baserunners in the contest (3H, 3BB) and would finish with six strikeouts. The phenomenal outing earned Gray his 10th win and brought his ERA back under 4.00 (3.88) for the season. He did walk three in the outing, which gives him 11 free passes in the past three starts (17.1 innings) and a 3.60 BB/9 on the season. Gray owns a worrisome 1.36 WHIP so far this season, but has been able to be moderately successful thus far due to a very high 77.7% LOB%. That number is 7.0% higher than his career LOB% mark, which is concerning. Additionally, Gray doesn't strike a ton of guys out (9.11 K/9) and he is forced to start his home games at Coors Field...Although Gray hasn't let the high altitude in Denver affect him much this season, as his home and road ERA/xFIP are very similar (Home: 3.90/3.87 ERA/xFIP, Road: 4.17/4.01 ERA/xFIP).
Sonny Gray, SP, CIN
Gray went 5.1 innings Monday evening and gave up four earned runs on six hits. The Reds offense scored 10 runs in the second inning to give Gray's middling outing plenty of cushion. Gray is putting together an impressive campaign in his first year with the Reds. The win brought his record to an even 6-6 on the season and he owns a stellar 3.45/3.47 ERA/xFIP to boot. Gray has been striking batters out at a career best rate (10.2 K/9 in '19 vs 8.16 K/9 career) and he hasn't been terribly hurt by the long ball (1.02 HR/9) so far this season. He is still available in 30.5% of ESPN leagues, but has seen a hefty uptick in ownership recently (+11.3%), so you should probably nab him up quick if he's still hanging around in your league's free agency.
Carson Kelly, C, ARI
Kelly went 2 for 3, and hit his 13th home run of the season Monday night in Miami. Kelly has destroyed left-handed pitching this season but has been absolutely putrid against righties. He came into this one batting near .400 (.396) against southpaws, while hitting just over .200 (.215) against right-handers. His overall numbers for the year come out to be respectable: .268 AVG and .364 wOBA; but his only fantasy use would be in daily leagues when the opposition is starting a left-hander. In 62 plate appearances verse LHP this season Kelly has hit five homers and owns an astonishing .521 wOBA.
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