Happy Friday unless you had one of Yu Darvish or Max Scherzer in your Fantasy lineups. While I'm not worried about either, I did just want to point out a few things for Darvish. Yes, he gave up six runs in this start against the Nationals, but even after that his ERA sits at 3.00. What's weird is how many fly balls he's allowing this season. Darvish is all the way up at a 49% fly ball rate, compared to just 31% last year. That's a massive jump year-over-year and, with the weather hot across the country, could lead to more fly balls. I'm not overly concerned, but would like to see that number drop.

On the positive side, Frankie Montas was the best version of himself on Thursday, limiting the Houston Astros to just one run over 6.2 innings with 10 strikeouts. That came on the back of 22 swinging strikes against the league's best offense when it comes to swinging strike rate. Like Chris Paddack and Eduardo Rodriguez, Montas falls into that category of frustrating starting pitchers because of his inconsistency. He's not a must-start after this performance, but it was very encouraging.

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What better team to have your best outing against than the Yankees lineup? That statement makes more sense most other seasons, but on another level, no matter what year it is -- it's always good to dominate the Yanks. That's exactly what Mariners SP Logan Gilbert did on Thursday night.

Gilbert threw seven one-hit innings, finishing with eight strikeouts and not a single walk. He was simply dominant from start to finish with 18 swinging strikes on 103 pitches. He induced 11 swinging strikes on the slider and seven on the four-seam fastball. The one negative for Gilbert is that he allowed seven hard-hit balls, but that's just a minor hiccup in what was an otherwise dominant performance. Gilbert relied on essentially the slider and fastball -- 97 of the 103 pitches he threw were either a fastball or slider.

Gilbert has been sneaky good in his last seven starts with a 2.37 ERA, 42 K over 38 IP, a 14% swinging strike rate and he is currently still just 70% rostered in CBS leagues. It's fair to say that number should be 100% right now.

Nothing is prettier to a Fantasy manager's eyes than checking a box score and seeing one player pick up a home run and a stolen base in one game -- contributing in every category. On Thursday, there were four players who accomplished this impressive feat and two of them are also two of the most valuable hitters in 2021.

Padres SS Fernando Tatis hit his 28th homer and grabbed his 20th bag -- 28/20 before the All-Star break is pretty special. He's now only the 15th player in MLB in history to go 20-20 in the first half and this came despite also having two IL stints (one for his shoulder, the other for COVID). Projections are a lot of fun when it comes to Tatis. Here's his 150 game pace: 59 homers, 42 steals

Nationals SS Trea Turner actually hit not one but two homers and a steal. He's up to 17 homers and 19 steals while batting .322. 

Turner's dominant season leads us to another discussion point. I'm making the case now that in Roto scoring we have a clear quartet that is above the rest right now: Tatis, Turner, Ronald Acuna, Shohei Ohtani.

Another socks and shoes qualifier is Phillies SS Didi Gregorius who went 3-for-4 on Thursday with a homer and steal. It was his seventh home run and his second bag. He has been out a lot this season with an elbow injury, but he's producing now and still just  59% rostered. Fun fact: Didi was a top-10 SS in both Roto and H2H points formats last season.

Mariners 2B Dylan Moore notched his eight homer and 14th steal on Thursday. Here's a weird nugget about his 2021 season: He's had a home run and steal in the same game four different times -- tied for the most this season with Tatis. He's 39% rostered due to his absolutely brutal .180 batting average.

• Dodgers SP Trevor Bauer's administrative leave will be extended another seven days by MLB. It's very unlikely things will be resolved in the next seven days, which means an indefinite leave is looming. 
• White Sox OF Eloy Jimenez, who tore his pec during spring training, will begin a rehab assignment with High-A on Friday. The best case scenario is that he's back late July. He's 72% rostered so might be out there in shallower leagues. 
• One day after talking him up on the podcast, Reds SP Sonny Gray was placed on the IL with a rib cage strain. However, this might just be roster manipulation to get another arm in the bullpen. Gray said he doesn't expect to miss a start. His next one would come Sunday, July 18. 
• We were all excited about Nationals SP Joe Ross and now he's on the IL with right elbow inflammation. 
• Dodgers SP Clayton Kershaw will undergo an MRI on this left forearm on Friday. The best we can do is cross our fingers.
• Orioles SP John Means is expected to pitch 3-4 innings during his second rehab start Friday at Double-A. He's been on the IL with a shoulder injury since early June. He could be back shortly after the A.S. break. 
• Astros 2B Jose Altuve will skip the upcoming All-Star Game due to a leg injury he's been playing through. 
• Mets SP Jacob deGrom will also skip the All-Star game to be with his family. Good, rest up and stay healthy.
• Cleveland SP Zach Plesac returned Thursday against the Royals. He went four innings, allowed three earned with five hits and no walks. He struck out two batters but also allowed two more home runs. On the positive side, his velocity and spin rate all looked fine.
• Injury updates: OF Mark Canha with the A's, OF Michael Lorenzen with the Reds and Dinelson Lamet with the Padres will not be back before the break. 
• SP Triston McKenzie will be recalled to start Friday for Cleveland. McKenzie was sent to the minors in mid-June, and he posted a 3.94 ERA and a 1.63 WHIP across four Triple-A starts since then.
• Nationals 1B Josh Bell was doing work in the outfield prior to Thursday's game. The Nationals outfield is a little thin with Kyle Schwarber and Andrew Stevenson on the IL. Bell was originally a right fielder in the minors up until 2015. 
• SP Michael King was placed on the IL for the Yankees and was supposed to start Friday against the Astros. Instead, it looks like Nestor Cortes will earn that duty.
• Two games were postponed due to weather on Thursday: NYM-PIT and TOR-BAL
• Players not in the lineup:
• Mets OF Brandon Nimmo with a sore shoulder
• Cubs SS Javier Baez with a thumb
• Cubs 3B Kris Bryant with the hamstring
• Tigers OF Robbie Grossman with a jammed finger

• Angels SP Alex Cobb at SEA
• Rangers SP Jordan Lyles vs. OAK
• A's SP/RP Cole Irvin at TEX
• Marlins SP/RP Zach Thompson vs. ATL
• Rays SP/RP Shane McClanahan vs. TOR
• Royals SP Brad Keller at CLE

• Blue Jays SP Ross Stripling at TB
• Mets SP Tylor Megill vs. PIT
• Twins SP Bailey Ober vs. DET
• Royals SP Mike Minor at CLE
• Angels SP Patrick Sandoval at SEA
• Mariners SP Chris Flexen vs. LAA

• Yankees SP Jameson Taillon at HOU
• Cleveland SP Eli Morgan vs. KC
• Rangers SP Kolby Allard vs. OAK
• Rockies SP John Gray at SD
• Padres SP Ryan Weathers vs. COL