James Wood, OF (WSH)
The phenom is growing up. Wood stuffed the stat sheet with three hits in four at-bats, including two home runs and five RBI's. He walked once and scored twice. He raised his OPS 237 points on Tuesday. Not only does he have three home runs and seven RBI's in his past two games, he hasn't struck out once in those games after striking out 15 times in his first nine games. Wood's talent is undeniable. His quality of contact is extraordinary, and he combines that with above-average speed. The next step in his development is better plate discipline, which this small sample size of two games is possibly a sign of things to come. Breaking balls have caused problems for Wood, but one of his home runs on Tuesday was off a slow Justin Wrobleski curveball. There will be blips along the way for the young talent, but the ceiling is sky high.
Kyle Schwarber, DH (PHI)
Schwarber finished a double shy of the cycle on Tuesday, continuing his productive start to the season. Tuesday's home run was his hardest hit ball since 2019, a 116.7 mile-per-hour bomb that went 462 feet. It was his fifth home run of the season, and this one came off reigning Cy Young winner Chris Sale. Three of Schwarber's three homers have come off lefties, despite a career ISO more than 100 points lower than against righties. He is absolutely locked in against southpaws in 2025. Schwarber's quality of contact is extraordinary in the early going. Meanwhile, his strikeouts are down. The veteran slugger has a history of hot streaks so this shouldn't be viewed as some permanent ascent, but enjoy it while you can.
JJ Bleday, OF (ATH)
Bleday brushed off a slow start with a big game on Tuesday. The 27-year-old was 2-for-3 with a home run, double and a walk. He scored three times and drove in three as the Athletics had another big offensive performance at home, beating the Padres 10-4. The home run was Bleday's first of the season. In fact, he came into the game with only one extra-base hit. Bleday is coming off an encouraging 2024 season where he improved in nearly all hitting categories, but prior to Tuesday he was struggling to drive the ball. His ground ball rate was way up and judging by his lack of aggressiveness, his confidence was lacking. There's no better way to jolt a player's confidence than a big performance like Tuesday. If you bought in preseason, there's no reason to change course now. The skills are there for continued improvement.
Nick Lodolo, SP (CIN)
Lodolo continued his strong start to the season with his third quality start. He outdueled Landon Roupp on Tuesday, throwing six scoreless innings while allowing only three hits and one walk. He has now allowed only two earned runs in 18.2 innings. However, he only has eight strikeouts after tallying three against the Giants. The ratios are fantastic, but the lack of strikeouts are disappointing for a pitcher that has demonstrated high-strikeout capabilities in the past. On the other hand, his one walk on Tuesday was his first of the season. So right now the oft-injured starter is keeping the ball on the ground and keeping runners off the bases. That should serve him well in Cincinnati, especially as the warmer summer months approach.
Brice Turang, 2B (MIL)
Turang extended his hitting streak to 14 games dating back to last season. The contact-focused infielder hit his third home run of the season on Tuesday and is already nearly halfway to last year's home run total. Two of Turang's batted balls on Tuesday, including the homer, were hit more than 100 miles per hour. He has 11 batted balls over 100-mph, 20% of the way to last year's total of 55 100-mph balls (the Brewers are less than 7% of the way through the season). It'd be easy to chalk this up to just a hot streak in a small sample size to begin the season, but his quality of contact is so good that it's worth considering whether or not he developed more power in the offseason. He's well off his path to the 50 stolen bases he nabbed last year, but everything else is screaming "draft day steal."
This is just a small sample our daily analysis, join our member area for tools that will help you win your fantasy championship. Click here for details: http://www.insiderbaseball.
