Brandon Nimmo (OF - NYM) - Nimmo walked, singled, doubled, and homered on Sunday, and he's now reached base in 15 straight. He finished June hitting over .300 and slugging almost .600 with 6 2B and 6 HR, as his relatively poor early-season numbers continue to drift in the direction of the excellent peripheral stats. He's maintained (and even expanded upon) last year's EV gains, and while his excellent contact rate has taken a bit of a hit as he reaches for a bit more power, he's still above average in that department. The .292 BABIP that he entered Sunday with would have been the lowest of his career, and with that contact ability and his excellent LD rate, I expect more positive movement from the still-underrated 31 year old.
Gerrit Cole (SP - NYY) - Cole was quite a bit better on Sunday than in his previous outing, holding the Jays to 1 run on 3 hits over 5 innings, walking 1 and fanning 6. His velocity was back up a bit, although still not to 2023 levels, and he recorded 12 swinging strikes during his 90-pitch outing. All in all, it was an outing that should make Cole owners feel quite a bit better about things, and on the whole I'm still cautiously optimistic. It's important to remember that the injury is a nerve issue, not a ligament issue. He shouldn't be any more "at risk" for TJ surgery than any other pitcher right now, so the fearmongering after his last outing, while understandable, is a bit misguided.
Kevin Gausman (SP - TOR) - Gausman finished up this extremely difficult portion of his schedule with a rough outing against the Yankees, allowing 7 runs and 12 baserunners over 4 1/3 innings, although he did fan 7. Clearly he isn't the same guy so far this year that he's been since COVID, but he's had some pretty poor luck, as evidenced by a SIERA and xFIP that are in the 3.60-3.75 range. I remain convinced that, while diminished, Gausman is still a solid mid-rotation arm at the very least. Trips to Seattle and San Francisco followed by a home matchup with Detroit over the next few weeks should allow him to right the ship a bit. I would absolutely be checking with his owner to see if he's fed up the past few weeks of results against 4 straight top-12 offenses.
Andrew Heaney (SP - TEX) - Heaney was brilliant against a legitimate offense in Baltimore on Sunday, going 7 strong innings and allowing just 5 hits and 2 runs while striking out 10. He got 19 swinging strikes, and was completely dominant his last time through the order, picking up 6 K's in his last 3 innings. As erratic as it seems that Heaney has been, he actually hasn't allowed more than 3 runs in an outing since April, although a few of those outings have been fairly short. He is normally a straight streamer against weaker teams for me and his next two outings are against the resurgent Rays and Astros, but he's been so good lately I may let the leash out a bit for him. Against both the Mets and Orioles his velocity was up almost a full mph, and he picked up 34 swinging strikes in those two games against quality opponents.
Matt Chapman (3B - SF) - Chapman homered on Sunday, giving him a 7-game hitting streak as he continues to try to rebound from yet another poor start to the season. His contact rate is the best of his career this season at just under 80%, and the exit velocity has remained borderline elite for the 3rd straight year at 92.2. He's even stolen 7 bases this year, a career high already. All that's been missing is the actual production, with an AVG of .241 and slugging of .405 coming into Sunday's game, vs. Statcast expected AVG and SLG of .262 and .452 respectively. Chapman has been underperforming his peripherals for so long that I hesitate to call him a buy-low candidate, but I suspect that he is just that.
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