Fantasy Baseball: Zac Gallen passes the Coors test, while Luis Robert is starting to struggle

Zac Gallen showed plenty of upside as a rookie, but he really stood out with his performance in Coors Field Tuesday, making him the biggest winner of the day.

By Frank Stampfl

Aug 12, 2020 at 10:43 am ET • 4 min read

This intro has really just become where we highlight the most obvious high-end Fantasy baseball studs of the night, but the main two things you need to know from Tuesday is that Charlie Blackmon is now batting .500 and Dylan Bundy looks like the breakout starting pitcher of 2020. Blackmon has now played 17 games this season and has had multiple hits in 12 of those!

And before you blame it all on Coors Field, he's batting .438 on the road. You can try and sell-high, but I'd really need to be blown away in order to move him. For Bundy, the transformation is real. Of his 103 pitches on Tuesday, just 40 of those were fastballs. More sliders and changeups equals money for Bundy.

Onto the rest of Tuesday night, which we recapped in full on Wednesday's episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast, which also focused on how to approach slow starters in this shortened season. Subscribe now to get every episode delivered to you each morning:

THE LATEST IN THE WORLD OF FANTASY BASEBALL

Ronald Acuña didn't play Tuesday because a wrist injury. He's going to get it examined on Wednesday in New York. Please, Fantasy gods. Let him be okay. Chris Towers highlighted some outfielders to consider adding just in case.
Ramon Laureano was handed a six-game suspension for his part in a brawl the other day, which he plans to appeal. He was still in the lineup Tuesday.
Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac were both placed on the restricted list Tuesday, as expected. They aren't expected to start until next week
Pirates placed Joe Musgrove on the 10-day injured list with right triceps inflammation. Don't even get me started. He's the reason I don't have more shares of Dylan Bundy.
Tim Anderson was activated from the 10-day IL Tuesday after dealing with a groin strain.
Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said Ken Giles is "recovering well" and "could be throwing soon". This is even more relevant after Anthony Bass blew the save Tuesday, allowing a three-run homer to … Francisco Cervelli?
Giancarlo Stanton is expected to miss 3-4 weeks. Even on the shorter end of that, he won't be back until early September.
Yordan Alvarez is mashing in his first 15 plate appearances across three intrasquad games: 6-10, 3 double, 1 HR, 5 walks. I'd be surprised if he wasn't activated by next week.

Tuesday's Biggest Winners

Through four starts, Zac Gallen looks like the budding ace we were hoping for. The most impressive part was that he went into Coors Field Tuesday night and allowed just two runs over seven innings with seven strikeouts. He now has three quality starts in a row with 22 strikeouts to just two walks.
Over his first 15 games this season, Eddie Rosario was batting just .208 with a .715 OPS. In the blink of an eye, he's hit three homers over his last two games with seven RBI. It's also a small sample size but Rosario has a 10.9% walk rate thus far. He's never a finished a season with a walk rate higher than 5.9%.
On Tuesday's Fantasy Baseball Today podcast, we mentioned that Garrett Hampson has been leading off but only against left-handed pitching. Well, he led off again last night and it was against … Gallen, a right-handed hitter. Hampson now has at least one hit in five of his last six games, plus two steals over his last three. The arrow is pointing up.
This is likely smoke and mirrors, but let's give credit where it's due. I left Jon Lester for dead entering the season but he has now allowed just two runs over his first three starts. Lester went into Cleveland Tuesday night and allowed just one run over six innings with four strikeouts. Try and sell him for anything!

Tuesday's Biggest Losers

Please forgive me, but Luis Robert is coming back down to earth. He is a ridiculous athlete and has shown me enough that I think he will be a special player, but he has issues with plate discipline. Over his first 74 plate appearances this season, he's striking out 33.7% of the time. He's also 0-for-9 over his last three games and will consistently bat towards the bottom of the lineup with Anderson back.
While only two of Ross Stripling's six runs allowed Tuesday were earned, he still allowed a grand slam to Manny Machado. Outside of his first start this season, Stripling has been subpar. He's also inducing fewer ground balls and swinging strikes than ever before. I'm rooting for Stripling, but he needs to turn it around with Alex Wood rehabbing and Dustin May pitching well.
I'm convinced Ryan Pressly isn't healthy. He blew another save Tuesday against the Giants of all teams and now has a 9.82 ERA. He was dealing with a finger injury a few weeks back so perhaps it's still hampering him. I think Andre Scrubb, who pitched the eighth inning Tuesday, is a speculative add in deeper Roto leagues.