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| Wednesday, September 29, 2021 |
| At this point there isn't much we can offer those still playing out their Fantasy Baseball leagues. Of course you can add pitchers to stream in daily leagues like Logan Gilbert and Michael Pineda on Wednesday or Joe Ryan or Alex Cobb on Thursday, but most of our analysis moving forward will be geared towards 2022. You can actually find Scott White's first two rounds for next season here and a player you won't find in that top-24 is Francisco Lindor. |
| Lindor has been underwhelming in his first season with the Mets, dealing with an oblique injury and underperformance for most of the season. The key word there is most . I know we don't want to put much stock into small samples, but Lindor has looked a lot like himself here in September. For the month he's batting .258 with eight home runs and a .911 OPS. The fly balls, average exit velocity and barrel rate are all way up, too, supporting the power output. Join me on a little trip down narrative street, but there have been many superstars struggle in their first year of a mega contract, especially when changing leagues. My guess is the Mets have a new manager and potentially new pieces on offense next year, which can only help Lindor. I have no idea where his early ADP will start, but I'll be interested if he's available in the middle rounds. |
| Of course, as always, you can follow to make sure you get the latest episodes of Fantasy Baseball Today right when they drop on Apple and Spotify. |
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| Cardinals clinch wild card with 17th straight |
| This one is not exactly Fantasy Baseball specific, but it's the best story in baseball so we have to cover it. On Tuesday, the St. Louis Cardinals made it win No. 17 in a row and in the process clinched a wild-card berth. They clinched the second wild-card slot, and this 17-game winning streak is now the second-longest in the MLB over the last 60 years. |
| Adam Wainwright got the job done for St. Louis in what has been a reclamation season for the veteran: He went six innings and allowed just two earned runs on seven hits and two walks. He struck out four and picked up his 17th win of the season. He also now holds a 3.05 ERA and 1.06 WHIP while chewing up 206 1/3 innings to go along with those 17 wings. He's more than Fantasy relevant in 2021 -- he's a Fantasy asset. Those who scooped him in free agency after his first few good starts were heavily rewarded, and he even delivered one final great start for those still playing in Roto leagues. |
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| Contreras gets the late call-up |
| Better late than never for these prospect call ups, amiright?! The Pirates join the party calling up pitching prospect Roansy Contreras to face the Cubs tonight. Contreras is the prospect who came over in the Jameson Taillon trade. He's a 21-year-old who made 12 combined starts this season in Double-A and one at Triple-A. He held a 2.64 ERA with a 0.93 WHIP and 82 strikeouts over just 58 innings pitched. Having said that, Contreras also hasn't thrown more than 3.2 innings in each of his last four starts (65 pitches was what he threw in his most recent start). |
| Robert continues to power on |
| We hope this isn't a case of a small sample size playing tricks on us (a costly one that will lead to him being overdrafted this coming March), but White Sox OF Luis Robert continued his dominance on Tuesday with a double-dong night. He's now batting .349 with 12 homers and five bags in just 64 games. Over the course of his career, Robert has played in 120 games at the major-league level and he has 23 homers, a .298 average and 14 steals. |
| The biggest difference for Robert might just be his strikeout rate, which he has improved from 32% to 20% during this season. But as we learned with the 60-game season, we can get ourselves in trouble with these smaller samples. He'll be one of the more interesting players to track from an ADP standpoint this spring. |
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| News and notes |
| Jacob deGrom will officially not pitch again this season, which comes as no surprise. The Reds placed Luis Castillo on the family medical emergency list Monday but he will return and make his final start Friday against the Pirates.Ryan Pressly was unavailable for Tuesday's win over the Rays due to a knee injury "that's bothered him in the past."Starling Marte has missed the last two games with a lat injury. Jameson Taillon exited early Tuesday after appearing to re-aggravate his ankle injury.Brandon Belt was placed on the IL with a fractured thumb, retroactive to September 27.Michael Brantley could return from the IL in the next 2-3 days.Anthony Santander went to the IL with a sprained right knee.Astros manager Dusty Baker said Tuesday that Zack Greinke will "probably not" make another regular-season start and that there is a "distinct possibility" the pitcher works out of the bullpen during the playoffs.Yandy Diaz was removed Tuesday due to left rib discomfort.Brady Singer was removed from his start due to right upper arm discomfort.Andrew Benintendi exited with an apparent knee injury.Nick Anderson was placed back on the IL while Andrew Kittredge was reinstated by the Rays. Carlos Rodon will start Wednesday against the Reds, but my guess is he's on a short leash. There's a really early mock going on right now that I saw Matt Williams tweet out. Rodon was SP23 off the board at pick 73.Padres manager Jayce Tingler said Yu Darvish's start against the Dodgers on Tuesday is likely to be his final outing of the season.Willy Adames was scratched Tuesday due to left quad discomfort, the same injury he was on the IL for earlier.Royals manager Mike Matheny said Tuesday that Carlos Hernandez won't start this week but will be available out of the bullpen.Four Reds: Jesse Winker, Mike Moustakas, Wade Miley and Shogo Akiyama, were ruled out for the rest of the season.Yadier Molina was scratched due to shoulder soreness.Alec Bohm was recalled from Triple-A Tuesday but was not in the starting lineup.Albert Pujols was placed on the IL without any injury designation, which means it's likely COVID related. Bailey Ober was placed on the IL with a hip strain.Pretty cool moments the past few days: Monday when Bradley Zimmer homered off his brother Kyle. Noah Syndergaard made his return as an opener Tuesday, striking out two of the three batters he faced. |
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