Fantasy Baseball Winners & Losers: Zack Wheeler looks like the best version of himself

The top winners and losers from Wednesday.

By Frank Stampfl

Sep 3, 2020 at 10:18 am ET • 4 min read

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After a recent stretch of craziness in baseball, Wednesday was tamer. Of course there are things to talk about but every now and then, I appreciate calm night. For the second straight day, however, there was a triple dong that might not matter too much for Fantasy. Adam Duvall hit three home runs Wednesday night against the Red Sox and is just 8% rostered on CBS. The truth remains that entering this game he was batting .229 with a .696 OPS. It's a cool moment but overall doesn't matter much in Fantasy circles.

Check out Scott White's takes on the top priorities on the Thursday Waiver Wire. Plus we discussed two exciting young pitchers, the debut of the "Stink-O-Meter" and Wednesday's action on Thursday's edition of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. Follow all our podcasts and subscribe here.

On to more pressing matters!

The latest in the world of Fantasy baseball

Josh Donaldson was finally back from his calf injury Wednesday and was batting second in the Twins lineup. He finished 2 for 5 with a double and two RBI.
Madison Bumgarner will return off the IL this Saturday in a familiar venue, San Francisco. Pay attention to his fastball velocity in that start because it was way down early in the season.
Gleyber Torres hopes to return this Friday, which seems entirely optimistic. He's only reporting to the team's alternate site on Thursday. The Yankees recent history of handling injuries is abysmal.
Mike Clevinger will make his Padres debut Thursday against the Angels. Sticking with the Padres, Wil Myers has been placed on the IL with an undisclosed injury.
The Angels activated Franklin Barreto from the COVID IL. Apparently, Joe Maddon plans to play Barreto "literally everywhere" down the stretch and then he wasn't in the lineup Wednesday.
Cody Bellinger was out of the lineup again Wednesday with that lat injury.
David Fletcher remained out of the lineup with his ankle injury.
Renato Nunez exited Wednesday's game against the Mets with a hamstring injury. He is day-to-day.
Jose Quintana was placed on the IL with a left lat injury and that could mean the return of Adbert Alzolay to the rotation.
Aroldis Chapman was suspended three games for throwing a 101 MPH pitch at Mike Brosseau's head on Tuesday. Chapman is appealing the suspension. Brosseau got the last laugh with a double dong on Wednesday.

Wednesday's biggest winners

Zack Wheeler is currently going through one of the best stretches of his career and doing it in a way we haven't seen before. He threw 6.2 shutout innings Wednesday against the Nationals and has now allowed three runs or less in all seven of his starts this season. He's gone to a fastball-heavy approach with a career-high 53.8% ground ball rate. If his 18 swinging strikes Wednesday are an indication of things to come, this may be the best version of Wheeler that we've seen yet.
If we're going to shower Ian Anderson with love, we have to do the same for fellow rookies Triston McKenzie and Sixto Sanchez. McKenzie tossed six shutout against the Royals on Wednesday with six strikeouts and 14 swinging strikes. Sanchez, on the other hand, needed just 79 pitches to get through seven innings of two-run ball against the Blue Jays. Both McKenzie and Sanchez are entering must-start territory.
Speaking of rookies, the Rays recently recalled Randy Arozarena, a prospect they received from the Cardinals in the Matthew Liberatore trade. He's started two of the last three games for the Rays and went 1-for-3 with a home run and a walk on Wednesday. Between Double-A and Triple-A in 2019, he hit .344 with 15 home runs and 17 steals. I'm not sure he'll play everyday at first, but he's a name to watch.

Wednesday's biggest losers

The gentleman who served up that home run to Arozarena was Jordan Montgomery. Monty recorded just two outs and allowed four runs to the Rays on Wednesday. He's been inconsistent this season and has only gone more than five innings twice in six starts. I'm OK dropping him for Tyler Mahle, Dane Dunning or Deivi Garcia.
Amidst the Cardinals' recent offensive surge, Dylan Carlson has been plopped on the bench. In the previous four games he did play, Carlson is 1 for 12 with four strikeouts. Given the injury to Dexter Fowler, I would expect Carlson to be back in the lineup, but he has been very underwhelming. He can be dropped in H2H points leagues, but I would probably hold in any Roto formats with five outfielders.
After two scoreless appearances, it looked like Ty Buttrey was back on track… and then Wednesday happened. Buttrey entered the eighth inning of a tie game Wednesday and promptly allowed three runs on three hits. We'll see if he gets the next save opportunity for the Angels, but it wouldn't shock me if Joe Maddon turns to Mike Mayers or Felix Pena, who have been much better.