Griffin Jax
With the Twins holding onto a four run lead, they turned to Jax in the 8th, who threw a clean inning, punching out two hitters. While the closer job is currently occupied by someone else, I still love Ja for mid-season ratio help. He's let up only one run in the last month, and that should keep up as he has fantastic underlying numbers. Jax has the rare ability to both get groundballs (52.4%) and punchouts (35.5%), and expected metrics (2.22 xERA) believe the quality play is true.
Jeff Hoffman
Hoffman threw a clean seventh inning for the Phillies, punching out two in a quick inning. Hoffman has quietly been one of the best relievers in baseball, and it seems like nobody is talking about him. Hoffman has allowed only three earned in 30 innings, good for a .90 ERA. xERA (2.39) and FIP (1.94) suggest he's been excellent, but maybe not .90 ERA excellent. He is one of six relievers with at least 30 IP and a FIP below 2.00.
Ryan Thompson
Thompson threw a clean eighth inning right before Paul Sewald threw the ninth. He did let up three hard hit balls in play in his one inning. The sidewinder has been excellent this year, posting a 2.25 xERA and 2.41 FIP. He's not a strikeout guy (20%), but an insane strike-thrower (2.9% BB) that somehow limits hard contact (2.5% Barrels, 89.2 EV) while being in the zone so much. What is further impressive is that he throws the sinker in abundance (70.7%), so hitters know it's coming and still pound it into the ground (65.4%). I love him as a ratio guy, but I wished Arizona was a little bit better so that he can sneak in a save every now and then.
David Robertson
The 39 year old did what might seem to be the impossible - he came into the game in the eighth (as he's done his whole career however) in a two run ball game, away, against the best lineup in baseball, and struck out Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, and Freddie Freeman all in one go. He did it yesterday, too! Not too shabby. He is currently posting the fourth highest K% of his career (35%) and somehow doing it without getting guys to chase (25%). He's 9th in the bigs in Holds. His 3.30 ERA is largely driven by an isolated bad outing against the Rockies (?) a month ago. Robertson is another ratio-saver I'm looking to target.
Other News...
Noelvi Marte
Marte was suspended for 80 games prior to the start of the season, and the wait is nearing over. With his suspension scheduled to wrap up after the next couple weeks, Marte has begun a AAA assignment in order to hit the ground running once he's allowed to play for Cincinnati. He was excellent as a rookie last season, posting a .316/.366/.456 slash line, while hitting the ball hard (46.1%) and keeping punchouts at a reasonable level (20.3%). Given his prowess as a prospect and MiLB track record, I am very intrigued. He hit three homers and stole six bases in 35 MLB games last year, so we could be in for a multi-category contributor upon return. Watch closely.
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