MLB Player News

Diamondbacks shortstop Cliff Pennington is not in the starting lineup for Saturday's game against the Reds.

Pennington hasn't played since Tuesday due to a thumb injury. He has hit .257/.342/.343 in 70 at-bats.

Slumping Brandon Crawford is grabbing some pine Saturday for the Giants in St. Louis. His shortstop spot has been taken by Ehire Adrianza.

Crawford has just two hits in his last 20 at-bats.

Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts continued to flourish in the second hole Friday night against Tampa Bay. He smacked three more hits, including an RBI double in the seventh inning that tied the game.

Bogaerts is 14 for 35 with four doubles since the elevation in the lineup in raising his batting average from .279 to .304.

Some hitters to sit in Fantasy Week 10 (June 2-8) include A.J. Pierzynski, Adam Dunn, Yangervis Solarte, Andrelton Simmons, Marcell Ozuna and, yes, even Dee Gordon (at least at second base in certain formats).

Find out why in my latest Start and Sit Hitters column.

Diamondbacks shortstop Cliff Pennington was not in the team's starting lineup Friday.

Pennington was scratched from Wednesday's lineup due to a thumb injury. He's not the usual starter at short, so it's unclear whether Pennington is still hurt, or if he's available off the bench. He's hitting .257 in 70 at-bats. 

It's nice to finally see Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts go on a hot streak since Fantasy owners were losing a little faith in the 21-year-old infielder following a slow start. He's batting .355 with a .565 slugging percentage and .985 OPS in his last 16 games, which has given Red Sox manager John Farrell the opportunity to move him up to second in the batting order.

It's not surprising Bogaerts is doing his best work against fastballs. He's batting .333 with a .513 slugging percentage and .396 BABIP against fastballs this season, per BrooksBaseball.net. He's also doing well with offspeed pitches, batting .316 with a .429 BABIP. Though, he's having trouble with breaking pitches, batting .143 with a .261 BABIP. Perhaps it's not too shocking to see a young hitter struggle with major-league breaking pitches, but at least he's performing well against fastballs and offspeed pitches.

Bogaerts is a special talent and should be a standout Fantasy player one day. It's encouraging to see him batting second. He should see some good pitches hitting in front of Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz. I did move him up in my rankings at shortstop and third base, and hopefully this is the start of his breakout run.

Red Sox infielder Xander Bogaerts picked up three hits Wednesday against the Braves.

Bogaerts reached in his first three plate appearances. He walked his first time up, added a double his second time up and singled his third time up. After striking out in his fourth at-bat, Bogaerts came back and hit another single. He finished the game 3 for 4, with one run scored and no RBI.

Bogaerts is hitting .287/.383/.414 in 181 at-bats.

Diamondbacks shortstop Cliff Pennington has been scratched from Wednesday's lineup due to a thumb injury, FOXSportsArizona.com reports.

Pennington hurt the thumb on his glove hand administering a tag on a slide Tuesday, and he'll get Wednesday off to recover. He has hit .257/.342/.343 with six RBI in 70 at-bats.

Diamondbacks shortstop Chris Owings went 1 for 4 with a walk and a solo home run in his team's 2-1 win over the Mets in the first half of Sunday's doubleheader.

Owings smacked his home run over the left-field fence in the top of the first inning, and he watched the winning run score on an error committed during a ground ball he hit in the ninth inning. Owings has hit .267/.313/.413 with three home runs and eight RBI in 150 at-bats.

As expected, Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts is in the lineup for Sunday's game against the Rays.

Bogaerts exited play Saturday with a hamstring cramp, but he said after the game the crap disappeared once the trainers worked on his leg. He has hit .279/.370/.406 with three home runs and nine RBI in 165 at-bats.