Boston Red Sox rookie outfielder slash shortstop slash influencer slash heartthrob Ceddanne Rafaela was two for four Friday night with his sixth and seventh home runs and five RBI. The first shot was a 3-run 359 foot ding dong into the monster that put Boston ahead 4-1. But one was so much fun, Ceddanne thought, why not do it again? And so he did. A 375 foot, 2-run bomb that really blew the game open 7-1. One of these days you’ll clear that monster, kid, just keep trying! At this rate, probably by the end of June. It was the first multi home run game of the 23-year old’s career and he now leads the Red Sox and all major league rookies with 33 RBI. That RBI total is a pretty impressive feat considering he’s slashing just .211/.239/.387 and has bat ninth for the majority of the season. Rafaela is young and raw and will need to make some adjustments to his swing and timing to become a more consistent hitter, and keep himself above the Mendoza line. He’s in a pretty sweet stretch right now though hitting .348 in the past week with two home runs and a steal! Yes, please, and more like this. Did I mention my dude plays some unbelievable defense? Grey’s been telling you to buy Ceddanne for about a month now. The average can be rough to deal with but he’s got that power/speed combo of fantasy b-ballers, err, uh, fantasies, I guess? If he can shorten that swing and make more consistent contact instead of trying to clear that monster on every swing the sky is the limit for the young stud. He is criminally available in most leagues and could be worth adding everywhere while he’s hotter than a Bridgerton carriage ride. Oh Ceddanne boy, the hype, the hype’s got me all in! This kid’s gonna be a star! Ha-cha-cha!
Here’s what else I saw in fantasy baseball Friday night:
Tanner Houck – 7.0 IP, 3 hits, ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 5th win, ERA at 1.85 ERA. Of all the Sawx young Aces overperforming, Houck probably looks consistently the best. Sure, Pivetta’s got the Ks and Kutter’s got the swag and no one really knows the other guys’ names but Tanner’s the stand out with two wins and a 0.90 ERA, 18/4 K/BB over the past two weeks. He gets the ShiteSox next week and if that’s not a trap game (it might be!) this string of luck should/could continue.
Colt Keith – 1-for-4, HR (2), 2 RBI. He was a BUY! Slowly but surely chipping away at that $28 million contract. Can’t say I’m surprised from the team that gave Javier Baez $140 million.
Riley Greene – 2-for-4, run, SB (2). With all that money tied up in below average infielders hopefully, the Tigers have enough cash left to throw at Riley Greene? Did anyone in the front office even consider that?
David Hamilton – 3-for-4, run, SB (9), slashing .281/.347/.416. Another BUY! He’s got four steals in the past week hitting .350 and has seemed to claim regular playing time mostly because there’s no one better. Vaughn Grissom stans stay strong.
Pete Crow-Armstrong – 2-for-4, run. Guess who’s back! Back again. No, not Eminem. But he’s also back, and older than ever before. PCA is intriguing mostly because his mother was in Little Big League, but also because of his power speed combo. I told you to grab him a month ago before he went 0-fer and got sent down. I also told you Rookie of the Year is the superior film, and I stand by that. PCA, I’m less confident in now though.
Alexis Diaz – 1.0 IP, 2 hits, ER, BB, SV (11). He’s the worst closer in the MLB. Keyword here is closer. As in he’s still the closer, no matter how bad, and they don’t really have anyone better.
Aaron Nola – 6.1 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 7th win, ERA at 3.03 ERA. Gave up two solo shots against two aging geezers but was pretty dominant outside of that. If anyone knows how to party it’s NOLA, just check the 71/22 K/BB. *swoons* King cake is right! Not sure any team in baseball has a better one-two punch than Wheeler-Nola. The Phils are a wagon, ya’ll!
Jeff Hoffman – 1.0 IP, 2 K, SV (5), ERA at 1.09 ERA. Was shocked to find the Hoff was available in one of my leagues. I know Alvarado is the primary “1A” closer but my dude Jeff has five saves and has given up one run all year! He should be owned everywhere at this point.
Brandon Crawford – 2-for-2, HR (1), slashing .152/.222/.242. I don’t know what makes me feel sadder, that slash or the fact that this was his first home run and RBI of the year. Let’s watch it out of pity. Can we get him back on the Giants now so I don’t feel as terrible about the world.
Aaron Civale – 5.1 IP, 6 hits, ER, BB, 3 K. Civale was a guy I was pretty excited about going into the year and he quickly extinguished that enthusiasm giving up 25 runs through his first seven starts. Dare I admit, he’s looked better lately. Against some pretty good teams even, and if he can turn in another QS against Baltimore next week, too, I may just come crawling back.
Craig Kimbrel – 1.0 IP, 2 K, SV (13). Has been absolutely lights out since he wasn’t. Five saves in two weeks. Yes, please and thank you, CK!
Luis Severino – 5.1 IP, 6 hits, 4 ER. BB, 4 K, 3rd win. I understand you probably shouldn’t have gotten a win here, but I’m happy you did, and I will drop you now but wish you the best in all your future endeavors.
J.D. Martinez – 1-for-4, 3 runs, HR (5), 2 RBI. So the Mets about to go on a run or what? Just Dong because it’s the only thing he can do to get traded before the deadline.
Jordan Montgomery – 4.0 IP, 9 hits, 8 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, ERA at 5.48. I know all the Boras pitchers are struggling now because they held out for so long and missed spring training but Boras DID get them paid and isn’t that what an agent is supposed to do? He’s their agent not their pitching coach. What does he care what their ERA is?
Jesus Sanchez – 3-for-3, HR (4), 3 RBI. I told you to buy him three years ago. You know, we don’t always nail our predictions. But how soon before I can say I called it? His three extra base hits Friday total a third of his XBH for the year. He’s now homered in back to back games. Has he risen? The advanced stat nerds say he’s been unlucky, but I’ll let him be unlucky on the waiver wire for a little while longer.
Tanner Bibee – 6.1 IP, 3 hits, ER, BB, 7 K, 4th win. Velocity was up, breaking pitches were, uhh, breaking and the Guardians (worst team name ever) have amazingly won 11 of his 12 starts! If he looks like an Ace, and pitches like an Ace, there’s a good chance he’s an Ace.
Steven Kwan – 3-for-4, 2 runs, RBI, batting .365. Kevin from ESPN’s “Get Him In Your Lineup” department was too busy covering the Indiana Fever, because that’s where half the ESPN staff is assigned to covering these days. But make no mistake, get Kwan in your line up as ASAP as possible because dude is still hitting all the beisbols.
David Fry – 1-for-3, HR (8), 3 RBI, slashing .365/.485/.629. Big time BUY, baby! Third bomb in six games! Fry is c00king and ends May with a .383/.513/.750 slash with 7 home runs and 18 RBI. Fry was staring at me on waivers all throughout April but I decided to stick with my mid catcher through his slump and guess what, he’s still mid and slumping. Why am I the way that I am? Meanwhile Fry Guy joined Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and Albert Belle on a list of players that had the best month for a Cleveland hitter and leads the MLB in OPS with 1.114. That’s some pretty impressive company to be in.
Miguel Andujar – 2-for-4, run, SB (1). Four game hitting streak with a home run and a steal in the past week while hitting .300! I won’t tell you he’s on the A’ss because then you definitely won’t add him. Oops, I told you!
Reynaldo Lopez – 6.0 IP, 4 hits, ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 3rd win, lowers his ERA to 1.73. Reynaldo gets a lot of criticism on Twitter, which is usually such a safe space I know, that he hasn’t necessarily been tested yet by a good team. Hmm, sounds like the Boston Celtics narrative. It’s not RL’s fault all these teams are terrible. But to be fair to the twitter trolls, San Diego is probably the best offense he’s faced and to his credit, he handled them nicely. The rest of the teams are not great, which is probably 80% of the league anyway. As a fantasy manager, I do not care that he hasn’t faced top-5 offenses, in fact, I much prefer it. This trend continues next week when he gets the Nats and happy to keep it this way.
Jose Berrios – 7.0 IP, 6 hits, ER, 5 K. Ol’ reliable. The darker the Berrios, the sweeter the juice. Too bad his team is so bad. He’s really had only one bad start in Philly, and has gone 6+ innings 10 times with just five wins to show for it. Would love to see Berrios traded to the Dodgers.
Davis Schneider – 1-for-6, 14th inning walk-off HR (7), 2 RBI. Have a day-vis! Someone’s feeling those CityConnects, and it’s not me. I think they’re ugly. As for Davis, He was the lede BUY, that’s a lot like a regular BUY only it comes with a fancy headline. I’ve been reluctant to recommend Schneider mostly because I didn’t want to spell his name wrong. Also, is it me or do you not see a lot of bespectacled players anymore? Let’s change this! Bring back the glasses!
Christian Yelich – 5-for-6, run, 5 RBI, SB (8), slashing .325/.406/.564. Brewers scored 12 runs with 29 (!) base runners (23 hits) in this one with three hit games from Brice Turang, William Contreras and Sal Frelick. A lot of these Brewers are raking right now but none more the Christian! Amen!
Pablo Lopez – 7.0 IP, 6 hits, ER, BB, 6 K, 5th win. The xFIP and xERA are more than a run lower than his actual ERA 4.84, which would suggest he’s had some bad luck and some positive regressive (progression?) is coming his way. I don’t believe in positive regression personally, or any oxymorons for that matter, but he looked good last night and the lone run allowed was a dinky shot from Alex Bregman. I’m not buying him before he visits Yankee Stadium, but he’s been better than the stats say.
Ronel Blanco – 4.2 IP, 3 hits, 4 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1st L. Speaking of better than the stats, what’s the stat for cheating liar who cheats and lies? Are we really just going to give him that no-hitter?
Dylan Cease – 5.1 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, BB, 5 K. After cruising through April he’s struggled with some tough matchups in late May, namely the Braves and Yankees and now KC but he’s still been mostly un-terrible and gets a gift wrapped matchup in Angel Stadium next week. Let’s get back in the win column DC!
James McArthur – 0.0 IP, 4 hits, 4 ER, BS (4). Does anyone else feel like they own all the worst closers in baseball? To be fair McArthur entered this game in the eighth with the bases loaded so low-presh save this was not. The blown save was McArthur’s fourth but his biggest competition for the gig, John Schreiber loaded the bases for him and gave up 3 ER of his own to get the L. So it’s all bad in the Royals pen right now. Welp. Schreiber’s got the ERA edge by about 2 runs so a change could be made but I’m not rushing out to grab either of them yet.
Luis Arraez – 4-for-5, 3 runs, 2 RBI. Padres scored 11 runs (ELEVEN) on 18 hits, including 9 runs in the 8th inning! Hitting close to .400 (.398 AVG) with his new team (24 games), what a great trade for the Padres to kick this line up into gear. Luis makes it look so ArraEZ.
Jurickson Profar – 3-for-5, run, RBI. Only Profar was upset about the Arraez acquisition because now he doesn’t lead the team in batting average. .327/.422/.495 is nice but I Profar Luis.
Nelson Velazquez – 1-for-4, HR (8), 2 RBI. 2-run home run kicked off a five run ninth! Nelly also almost hit a second home run in the ninth to tie the game, a 385 foot out that would have been a home run in 20 ballparks. This was a wacky game, at least it looked that way from the box score. Gotta respect the fight from the Royals, and disrespect both of these teams’ bullpens for blowing such huge leads.
Dakota Hudson – 7.0 IP, 4 hits, ER, BB, 3 K, 2nd win. Would love to see the size of your Dakotas if you started him at Dodger stadium. You wouldn’t have been THAT crazy as he’s actually pitched pretty decently lately, against some pretty tough teams no less. Credit where credit is due, Dak, I’m still not adding you though.
Walker Buehler – 6.0 IP, 6 hits, 3 ER, 4 BB, 7 K. I didn’t realize you were so much of a Walker. I prefer it when you’re just a K-er. He’s looked better than expected since returning from TJ, but would have been nice to see him dominate the Rox.
Jalen Beeks – 1.1 IP, 2 K, SV (6), ERA at 2.93. He was a BUY and he might be the best pitcher on the Colorado staff right now. Take your time and add him if you need saves, but really, there’s no rush.
Ezequiel Tovar – 3-for-4, HR (8). He hit five of his eight homers in May, let’s watch one of them. Mmm, pretty. The rookie has been really impressive actually, leading the NL in extra base hits in May. This is a kid who could really take off during the summer, even if the counting stats may not be there in this sad sack lineup. Would it kill you to steal more, too, Zeke? I’m just saying!
Bryan Woo – 6.0 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, 2 K. C-Attle continues to coddle their precious Woo Woo, pulling him after just 66 pitches but it’s paid off so far as Woo has been better than your average Bryan since returning from an elbow injury. He gets the A’ss next week and if he’s hanging out on waivers still you need to correct that.
Ty France – 3-for-3, HR (7), 3 RBI. Au revoir, base-ball! Another BUY! As in the French-English translation, bye-bye, baseball!
Jose Soriano – 6.0 IP, 7 hits, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K. I don’t understand what people see in you? Someone help me understand.
Jo Adell – 1-for-1, pinch hit Grand Slam HR (11). Adell has been really struggling lately but that’s one way to bust out of a slump. You don’t see pinch hit grand salamis every day and it was every bit as exciting as you can imagine! Also, just got word the Angels have extended Ron Washington for the next five years.
Zack Neto – 2-for-3, 2 SB (8). If the steals were a regular occurrence I might actually consider adding you. They don’t seem to be but I’ll be watching you closer than a Mad Max film. Speaking of films, I NEVER do this but I have a film recommendation for you all. Must check out Sasquatch Sunset, it’s an absolute tour de force, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film with so many heart warming moments, and also poop flinging. It was neato.
Marcus Stroman – 7.1 IP, 6 hits, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 5th win. MaStro conducted another beautiful win and lowered his ERA to 2.76. I like my wins with more Ks, but this is Stroman’s game and you cant say he doesn’t do it very well.
Jordan Hicks – 5.1 IP, 8 hits, 4 ER, 4 K, 2nd L. Regression fairies have been hovering Hicks for some time. They’re VERY upset Jennifer Lopez canceled her summer tour. They were going to follow her around the country in a van learning all her dances and singing all her hits. They are now angry and bored, they hate the summer and they will destroy your ratios.
Aaron Judge – 3-for-4, 2 HR (20), 4 RBI. Remember when he bat .220 in April? Me neither! He’s hit 14 homers in May, four in the last week, and here’s the latest one. Mhmm. He now leads the league with 20 and things change quick around here, apparently. Ugh, I hate gushing about Yankees but here goes: Judge is also first in SLG%, OPS, BB%, Hard Hit rate, Barrel rate and wRC+. I am ashamed to admit I offered him straight up for Paul Skenes in early April. Wait, before you tomato me, it’s a dynasty league and you know who’s probably more ashamed than me? The guy who refused my offer. Back to the Judge, his May batting average trails only Luis Arraez, and 27 RBI behind only Jose Ramirez. His 1.415 OPS was almost 400 points higher than the next guy. Yes, the sweetest of sassy molassys are in order! He’s a big, giant home run freak monster man. It’s almost like he gave everyone a massive head start in the MVP race and when May hit Aaron was like, OK, ready for my .371/.488/.928 slash, let’s do this.
Thanks for reading! Questions? Problems? Complaints to management? Advice, small gifts or large bribes? Please leave it in the comments below. Join us next Saturday for another Friday recap as fantasy baseball continues next week, all week long!
