Alek Manoah, SP, TOR
Manoah was activated off the IL on Saturday and a pitched 7 scoreless innings against the Royals, striking out 7 and allowing just 2 hits and 1 BB. He now has an 0.76 ERA over his last 4 starts, lowering his season ERA to 2.47. His xFIP is a much more pedestrian 4.10, but over those last 4 starts , he owns an excellent 29:7 K:BB across 23.1 IP. He's likely to see some regression to his ERA, but he should remain a strong option going forward.
Yordan Alvarez, OF, HOU
Alvarez was not in the starting lineup for the Astros on Saturday and went 0-1 as a pinch hitter in the contest. Alvarez has struggled a bit in recent weeks, hitting just .171 over his last 19 games with 3 HR's and 1 double in that span. He has struck out an elevated 32.5% of the time during this stretch, but his EV has still been strong at 92.7. It's probably a stretch to expect to hit over .300 like he did in his rookie season, but the power should still be there.
Jaime Barria, SP, LAA
Barria tossed 6.2 shutout innings against the A's on Saturday, allowing 4 hits and 1 BB while striking out 1. This makes two strong starts in a row for Barria who allowed 2 ER's in 7 IP against the Twins his last time out. Barria has finished with an ERA under 4.00 in two of his three big league season, although his xFIP was near 5.00 in both of those seasons. His xFIP this season is at 5.81 and he has a weak 8:8 K:BB across 19.2 IP, so he's hard to trust going forward.
Wander Franco, SS, TB
Franco went 2-4 with a 3B and 2 RBI against the Red Sox on Saturday, and has picked things up after a slow start to his MLB career. Since the all-star break, Franco has hit .286 with 6 XBH's in 14 games, while striking out at a decent 17.7% clip. He may not show a ton of power right away, but his BA should continue to climb from its current .239 mark.
Seby Zavala, C, CWS
Zavala hit his first 3 career homeruns against the Indians on Saturday, becoming the first player in MLB history to hit his first 3 HR's in the same game. Entering the game, Zavala had a career .125 BA and 48.9% K% across 45 PA's along with a 23.5% HardHit%. For now, we'll have to assume this was a career game for Zavala, unless he starts doing this more often.
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.
