30 Fantasy baseball thoughts from Week 11 of MLB action

AL East

Baltimore Orioles: The HR against woes continue for Baltimore with their starters having a HR allowed just over 10% higher than the next closest MLB team.

Boston Red Sox: Boston has 765 strikeouts over the last month, most in the league. They are rallying back big.

New York Yankees: Interesting piece on the ‘new’ Didi Gregorius

Tampa Bay Rays: The MLB ok’d them exploring being in two cities as both Tampa Bay and Montreal, I read online they should be called the “ex-rays”. (the plan would have them play early season in one city and late season in the other).

Toronto Blue Jays: A BABIP of .252 has me wanting to pick up a few Blue Jays and see if there is some upcoming upside.

AL Central

Chicago White Sox: Lucas Giolito with 42 IP, 5 wins a 2.13 ERA and a 14 K/BB rate over the last 30 days, good enough for third best pitcher in the league. Craziest part is he’s under 90% owned!

Cleveland Indians: Oscar Mercado (42% owned) has four SB this week. He will ebb and flow but the steals situation looks to be real.

Detroit Tigers: Lead the league in batted strikeout rate of 27% over the last 30 days.

Kansas City Royals: Royals starters have the third worst K/BB% over the last 30 days. This might be tied into the success or lack therein of the slider which they throw more than anyone else in the league.

Minnesota Twins: Max Kepler (82% owned) with 25 runs, 27 RBI’s, 1 SB and a .337 avg over the last 30 days. He is stepping in among a number of excellent twins players this year.

AL West

Houston Astros: Houston has a pitched LOB rate of 78% which seems about 5% high to me, I wouldn’t be surprised if they take a minor step back from their pitchers.

Los Angeles Angels: 3rd fewest strikeouts in MLB among starters over the last 30 days.

Oakland Athletics: Liam Hendriks (6% owned) has three consecutive holds with 0 ERA and no batters walked. It’s early but he could be a deep league flier for leagues that have holds as a category.

Seattle Mariners: Throwing the FB the least of anyone in the league over the last 30 days and they have low K AND BB rate (both among the three lowest)

Texas Rangers: Texas leads the league in strikeouts over the last 30 days with 298. Good matchup for opposing pitchers perhaps?

NL East

Atlanta Braves: Anthony Swarzak (12% owned) has 8 saves+holds over the last 30 days, 2nd most in the MLB. He’s done this with a sub 2 ERA too.

Miami Marlins: The Marlins are sporting the 2nd lowest HR allowed among their starters over the last 30 days.

New York Mets: They have the fourth most HR over the last 30 days.

Philadelphia Phillies: The Phillies broadly sporting the 2nd worst FIP over ERA from their starters over the last 30 days.

Washington Nationals: Max Scherzer pitched a scoreless 7 IP yesterday with a black eye and broken nose after an attempted bunt at practice came up into his face. Take a second and think about that, it’s pretty impressive.

NL Central

Chicago Cubs: Cole Hamels breathed some life into the lackluster Cubs pitchers with a very impressive 22IP, 2 wins and 0.41 ERA over the last two weeks.

Cincinnati Reds: Luis Castillo has a 2.26 ERA and a 3.53 FIP WAY outperforming his FIP (2nd highest in the league among qualified pitchers)

Milwaukee Brewers: Zach Davies has a 3.06 ERA and a 4.44 FIP WAY outperforming his FIP (highest in the league among qualified pitchers) and yet he continues to get the stats. Maybe I'm naive but I'm believing in Davies.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Pittsburgh's great pitching squad is throwing a fastball 58.5% of the time over the last 30 days, 2nd most of any team in MLB. I guess keeping it simple helps, no crazy spins, just throwing the heat.

St. Louis Cardinals: Kolten Wong is 22% owned and has 7 SB over the last 30 days, 3rd most in the league over that time. It helps that he’s among the top 1-2 batters quite a bit.

NL West

Arizona Diamondbacks: Eduardo Escobars 28 RBI’s over the last 30 days are the 2nd most in the league behind Mike Trout. Personally, I'm not riding this hot streak and think a serious regression is coming soon.

Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon with 17 runs, 17 RBI’s and a .474avg over the last two weeks, if you remember he was among the handful of Rockies stars who were outside the top 100 through the first 3 weeks.

Los Angeles Dodgers: David Freese (4% owned) has the highest OBP (.473) among any batter with at least 50AB over the last 30 days. The kicker is he’s only playing about half of the time.

San Diego Padres: Lead the league in holds over the last 30 days.

San Francisco Giants: Mike Yastrzemski, grandson of Carl has the 16th highest Slugging percentage (.917) and the 35th highest average (.417) over the last 7 days. It’s nothing crazy but he’s only 1% owned and probably worth a flier in very deep leagues. Biggest issue is he’s only playing about half the time.