Ryne Nelson (SP - ARI) - Nelson was solid again on Friday against the Red Sox, allowing 5 hits and 2 runs over 6 innings with 1 walk and 7 K's to pick up his 9th win of the season. The stats don't look like much, but since July 1 Nelson is 4-0 with 62 K's in 62 innings, a 2.76 ERA, and a WHIP of 0.95. At some point, we have to recognize that, while the season-long body of work isn't impressive at all, Nelson has improved enough to be usable now. The BB rate continues to get better, he's been avoiding hard contact much more frequently, and the K rate is at 1 per inning for two months now. A pitcher with his kind of control and ability to keep the ball in the park doesn't have to strike out the world to be impactful, and the K increase of late just makes him that much more interesting. I don't think he's suddenly a mid-rotation starter, but he's rapidly becoming trustworthy in all formats for me.
Andre Pallante (SP - STL) - That's back to back QS for Pallante, who was very solid against the Twins on Friday in a 7 IP, 2 ER outing. He allowed 5 singles and walked two while fanning 5, generating his usual massive amount of GB and also picking up 13 swinging strikes. The walks and lack of K's are going to keep people away, but the GB rate of 62% is over 2% higher than anybody in baseball with his amount of innings, and that has value. He's essentially a league average SP from an ERA standpoint, but any improvement in either control or bat-missing and he will rocket up the charts. I think he's a clear deep-league starter now, and he's on the fringe for standard formats. ...I will definitely be keeping a close eye on him down the stretch to see if there is any positive movement in BB rate or SS%.
Joey Loperfido (OF - TOR) - Loperfido doubled and homered in the 5-4 comeback win over the Angels on Friday, and over the past 5 games he's 8-16 with a double, two triples, and two HRs. Perhaps most importantly for a player that was striking out a ton in his first 30-40 MLB contests, he's only struck out twice during these past 5 games. His minor league contact numbers were pretty close to average, so I have to think that his initial struggles were just an adjustment period, and that what we're seeing lately is a bit closer to his true talent level. The 25 year old routinely slugged above .500 in the minors with solid plate discipline and good speed in addition to the good power and decent contact...I'm in favor of a pickup in deeper leagues here.
Connor Norby (3B - MIA) - Norby is back in the bigs, starting at 3B for the Marlins since the release of Emmanuel Rivera. Norby doubled, walked, and stole a base on Friday against the Cubs, and he's hit in all 4 games since his call-up. There are contact issues here for sure, but there might be above-average power and speed (he has 19 HR and 13 SB in 106 G between AAA and MLB this year) here, which is somewhat rare at 3B. I obviously don't love the offensive environment in Miami, but Norby is at least worth a roster spot in deep leagues if he's going to start every day. I do worry quite a bit about the ability to hit for any kind of an average, but he's managed to be respectable in that area the vast majority of the time in the minors.
Parker Meadows (OF - DET) - Meadows walked, doubled, and scored twice in the 5-2 win over the White Sox on Friday, and he's hitting 345/377/569 in August with 11 R and 5 SB. I expected quite a bit from Meadows this year and he was very disappointing for the first few months of the year, but we appear to be on the right track now. I would definitely take a chance on him the rest of the way in all but the most shallow of formats. Still just 24, the 20/20 potential is obvious to all, and the contact ability seems like it's improved to near average over the past two seasons.
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