I am reading a book this summer called The Cartel by Don Winslow. No, you wise acres, it’s not the only book I’ve read. I read a 1,0000 pager too! Brandon Sanderson comes highly recommended.
Anyway, in this book, they mention grilling out in Mexico is called “carne asada.” I refuse to do any Googling to confirm but maybe you can in the comments? And also, in the book, they weren’t grilling, they were creatively getting information. But that’s not my point.
Jake Burger had a great week and also a hilarious one because he’s on a terrible team. Five home runs and six RBI for the guy who used to have a beard but I haven’t seen him since he’s on the Marlins. I called for him as a pickup, and if you listened, and I don’t know why you would have, but he’s carried teams this past week.
Let’s keep going with Marlins and former Marlins. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is the regular third baseman now for the Yankees and is giving his owners what they’ve yearned for several years. .316 average, 7 HR and an OPS over 1.000 are signs that he could be invigorated by the environment in New York and a pennant run. Of course, the risk manifested itself with an injury to the elbow on Monday; the way the Yankees season has been going he probably is going to need an amputation.
Update: it’s a UCL injury, not quite an amputation but close enough. Sigh. That paragraph had a lot of big words in it so it stays, but doesn’t apply. On a deadline people!
Isaac Paredes was ranked 9th at third base last week. Christopher Morel was ranked 84th. Sure you can cut Morel. Paredes is fine, just a little slump trying to show off for his new besties. No worries at all for him. Morel went 3-27, no home runs, no run production. Tampa is no longer the island where misfit ball players become their fullest versions of themselves. Maybe next year you get Morel late; this year I’m cutting bait.
Freddie Freeman has a ton of real life things going on, and I can’t imagine being away from my family trying to work a difficult job at a high level, so I’m giving him a pass for the slightly lower but still good stats. He’ll be better next season at a discounted price. One more ride for Freeman, and best wishes to his family. He’s still ranked 12th in the Razzball rest of season projector, so it could just click at any time now.
Junior Caminero got the call for Tampa and hopefully doesn’t go all Morel on us. He has according to some people what they call 80 grade power. That’s good. This year though rookies are really struggling for extended periods to adjust to the major leagues and the high level of pitching. Keeper leagues rejoice. Teams shouldn’t drop their top guys for him if they are in contention but last place teams go ahead. He’s got the pedigree.
Josh Bell continues to keep their heads ringing. Past 30 days he has 10 dingers and a .315/.394/.717 slash line. When this guy gets cracking like that it can last for months. He’s somehow only owned in 56% of Yahoo leagues, bet that most competitive leagues have noticed this since they all read this space regularly. He’s done it before. He’ll keep it up.
To answer the question in the title, I’m taking Josh Bell over Burger. He’s got a more sustainable skill set and is in a better lineup. Plus whenever he comes up Dr. Dre pops in my head, you know “Ding dong. Ringaling ding ding dong” and he should for sure use that for walk up music. Bell over Burger for now.
Nice short and sweet this week, thanks for reading!
