Nelson Cruz cranked his 10th home run of the year on Sunday, going 2-for-3 with a solo homer, two runs scored and two walks against the Royals. Cruz stayed hot by belting his sixth homer in his last nine games, raising his average to .343 in the process. Cruz has been raking all season, showing no signs of slowing down at age 40 after posting a career-best 1.031 OPS last year. He's also been one of the game's top run producers with 26 RBIs in 28 games, putting him in contention to win his second RBI title. Cruz should continue getting plenty of RBI opportunities batting in the middle of Minnesota's power-laden lineup, and he's certainly capable of hitting for a high average again after batting .311 last year.
Niko Goodrum went 2-for-3 with a double, a solo homer, two walks and a stolen base against the Indians on Sunday. Coming off three straight hitless games and after managing just three hits in his previous 35 at-bats, Goodrum broke out for a monster game that stuffed the box score. While his average has been hovering around the Mendoza line for much of the year (it's currently at .202), he's continued to retain some fantasy value via his five home runs and three steals. His 35.6 percent strikeout rate is still cause for alarm, however, and limits his fantasy ceiling unless he's able to trim his whiffs significantly. It also doesn't help that he has virtually no supporting cast in Detroit, limiting his fantasy value to AL-only leagues and deeper mixed leagues.
Teoscar Hernandez jacked his 10th home run of the season on Sunday, going 1-for-1 with a solo homer, two runs and three walks. He also swiped two bases, doubling his season total to four. Hernandez has been one of baseball's top fantasy performers in the first half of this abbreviated season, flashing some speed and batting .296 while supplying his usual power. The batting average seems likely to come down based on his poor plate discipline (7:31 BB/K ratio), and he's already two steals shy of his career high. His power is legitimate, however, as he mashed 48 homers in 2018 and 2019 combined. Accordingly, fantasy owners may want to sell high on the 27-year-old if they can.
Miguel Sano went 3-for-4 with two doubles, two runs, an RBI and a walk Sunday against the Royals. Sano extended his hitting streak to seven games with his first three-hit performance of the season, raising his average to .241 in the process. Even more impressively, Sano has tallied at least one extra-base hit in each of those games as well, clubbing eight doubles and one homer. The 27-year-old has come around at the plate after a slow start, looking more like the slugger who finished last year with career highs in homers (34) and OPS (.923). His strikeout rate is still outrageously high at 43.2 percent, so unless he brings that down considerably his average likely won't improve much, limiting his overall fantasy value.
Hunter Dozier rapped out four hits on Sunday, going 4-for-4 against the Twins with two doubles, three runs and a walk vs. the Twins. Dozier, who just recorded his first multi-hit game of 2020 on Friday, wasted little time in notching his second of the season. The four hits raised his average from .194 to .275. He's been showing a good amount of pop though, with five of his 11 hits going for extra bases, proving that the power he displayed last year (65 extra-base hits, .522 slugging) is legitimate. Dozier's also been displaying good plate discipline with nine walks against 10 strikeouts -- a big improvement for him considering that he entered the season with a career 81:265 BB/K ratio. In only his third full season at the advanced age of 29, Dozier still appears to be improving and has proven himself as a strong fantasy option.
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: http://www.insiderbaseball.com/baseballsample.htm Click here to register: http://www.fantistics.com/salesbaseball.php3
