Happy Monday! Another fun weekend is in the books, unless you were facing Salvador Perez in a head-to-head league. That man has now homered in five straight games and is now up to 38 home runs on the season. He wound up with 50.5 Fantasy points this week in CBS H2H points leagues! That's unheard of from the catcher position. Speaking of catchers, help is on the way with the Nationals' newly acquired Keibert Ruiz being promoted Monday. You can read more about him below.
One of the big stories from Sunday was Jesus Luzardo's bounce back. It appears we have a bit of a 'Wild Thing' situation on our hands. For anybody who has seen the movie Major League, you remember Charlie Sheen's character turned his season around once he started wearing glasses. Well, Luzardo wore his glasses for the first time since joining the Marlins on Sunday and the results spoke for themself. He threw six shutout innings with eight strikeouts, allowing just one hit and one walk. He finished with 15 swinging strikes and threw his secondary pitches more. He isn't a must-add across the board but if you can afford to add him and see where this goes, I definitely would. Luzardo has league-winning potential if he can get back on track.
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Ruiz gets the call up
Scott spoke about him on Friday's prospect and made the call that Keibert Ruiz would get the call up shortly -- even making Scott's prospects report -- and now he'll get that call up from the Nationals on Monday. Washington is bringing up their top catcher prospect after he has been absolutely crushing Triple-A ball with .310 average, 21 homers and 59 RBI. He's just 23% rostered at the moment
Where does he fit into the catcher ranks? I think he's startable right away in one-catcher leagues because the catcher position is so shallow this year. Now that Ruiz has developed what looks like a considerable amount of power, Scott has confident he'll be a stud Fantasy catcher at some point. He already had the contact down and now he's developing the second part of his profile. It's inevitable that he becomes a stud but when that happens is a trickier question. Scott is not as enthused about starting him right away given all the factors that would have to come into play for him to make an immediate Fantasy impact as a catcher.
Scott's got the wait-and-see approach with Ruiz but I'm a bit more bullish on him.
Deep league option Otto makes his debut
If you're looking for a potential waive wire scoop up in deeper leagues, Rangers pitching prospect Glenn Otto was surprisingly dominant in his debut against a typically tough Astros lineup. Otto pitched five shutout innings for Texas and allowed just two hits and zero walks. He also racked up seven strikeouts with nine swinging strikes induced (eight on his slider) on just 73 pitches for a healthy 34% called swinging strike rate.
His pitch mix: 41% slider (a sweeping slider that's quite an awesome pitch to watch), 41% fastball (averaged 93.2), 10% changeup, 8% curveball.
He's just 5% rostered and when you put up that kind of debut it's worth monitoring. Right now he's more of a deeper league stash than anything else. Scott concurs it's a solid move in deeper leagues to dial up Otto now and stash him because of the 12.6 K/9 he racked up in the minors and the big breakthrough he's had with the slider.
Wisdom's wild run
Don't look now but Cubs 3B Patrick Wisdom has eight home runs in his last nine games now. He had a monster weekend with a pair of double donger games. He's heating up again and with 25 homers in 254 at bats he's on better than a 50-homer pace projected over a full season. Scott dropped him in some leagues and regrets it knowing how hard it is to find this kind of power in Roto leagues. The guy's on a 50-homer pace with a .899 OPS! Of course, Wisdom's strikeout rate is through the roof, but Wisdom's long history of power at the minor league level bodes well.
The Cubs continue to put in play long-term minor league stars and they have done an excellent job coaxing out production from the at the next level. Wisdom is worth scooping up in any Roto leagues where you need power.
News and notes
- Shohei Ohtani was hit by a pitch on his right hand/wrist area Saturday. X-Rays came back negative. Breathe a sigh of relief.
- Mike Trout was able to aggressively run the bases at Angels Stadium on Friday. He hasn't appeared in a game since May 17.
- Chris Sale has been pushed back to Wednesday this week so he will not have a two-start week as previously expected.
- Jon Gray exited Saturday's start against the Dodgers with right forearm tightness. Manager Bud Black indicated the injury was up toward Gray's elbow, though it wasn't the UCL.
- Byron Buxton was activated this weekend and went 0-for-11.
- Kenta Maeda is scheduled for elbow surgery next week and will miss the remainder of the season. The extent of the surgery is yet to be revealed but Tommy John is an option.
- Mike Moustakas was removed Saturday with hip tightness. He's batting .173 since returning from the IL.
- Eddie Rosario made his Braves debut this weekend, went 2-4 with his 10th stolen base on Sunday. He's 64% rostered, was activated Friday but didn't start until Sunday.
- Pablo Lopez didn't make his scheduled rehab start Thursday as the Marlins have elected to slow down his progression.
- Gleyber Torres started a rehab assignment Saturday.
- Kyle Lewis was seen running the bases at full speed and sliding in the outfield Sunday, a sign he could soon begin a minor-league rehab assignment. He had surgery on his right knee in June and is 51% rostered.
- Tony Gonsolin will throw a simulated game Monday. He's on the IL with a shoulder injury.
- Touki Toussaint pitched in relief Sunday with Ian Anderson back. They could go six-man rotation but haven't revealed that yet.
- Chas McCormick is set to begin a rehab assignment.
- The Pirates released Gregory Polanco. Yoshi Tsutsugo started in right field Sunday and has been hot. He's 9-for-27 with five homers in 13 games since joining the Pirates. He's 2% rostered.
- Noah Syndergaard tested positive for COVID so he couldn't make his scheduled rehab appearance Sunday.
- Didi Gregorius went on the paternity list Sunday, which means he'll miss at least three days.
- To the IL this weekend are the following players:
- Enrique Hernandez tested positive for COVID.
- Mitch Garver lower back strain.
- Jake Fraley with right shoulder inflammation.
Waiver wire pitchers
- Ranger Suarez in his last outing: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 12 SS on 95 pitches. He's 51% rostered and draws an excellent matchup against Miami this week.
- Tylor Megill in his last outing vs. Washington: 5 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 11 SS on 82 pitches. He's 64% rostered and at WAS again this week
- Matthew Boyd's return vs. the Blue Jays: 4 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 11 SS on 71 pitches. He's 39% rostered and at CIN this week (26th in wOBA vs LHP)
- Daniel Lynch in his last start vs. the Mariners: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 16 SS on 104 pitches. In his seven starts since returning: 2.23 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 4.75 xFIP, 12.5% SwStr rate. HE's 50% rostered and vs. CLE this week (18th vs. LHP, 7th last 30)
