These 6 SHOCKING facts will change everything you thought you knew about fantasy baseball!
No, sorry, that’s a lie. But we have half a dozen mildly interesting MLB notes for your review, some of which are relevant to your fantasy life…
81 – Last week, the Kansas City Royals promoted a pair of Omaha players who had already combined for 81 underage interceptions. EIGHTY ONE. Dairon Blanco led the International League with 47 stolen bases in just 49 games and Samad Taylor stole 34 bags. Both of these guys were also reaching base at a clip over .400. It seems the plan is for each of them to play regularly for KC, so go grab one (or both) if you need a speed boost. Blanco and Taylor are only 3% each in the Yahoo Leagues.
30.8 – You probably didn’t need obscure Statcast data to reveal the fact that Elly De La Cruz is, in fact, quite adept, but here’s a nugget for you nonetheless: his maximum sprint speed so far this season is 30.8 feet per second, which is the best in MLB. The man just made his Cincinnati debut a few weeks ago and he’s already in the 95th percentile for exit speed and at the top of the leaderboards for sprint speed. Players don’t have more tools than that. De La Cruz is a gift.
37 – Hey, remember Darick Hall? He’s the 27-year-old Phillies first baseman we were all praising in the spring after the season-ending injury. Rhys Hoskins. Hall soon suffered a thumb injury, but he’s back from IL and was opted for Lehigh Valley. Hall hit 37 homers last season between Triple-A (28) and Majors (9), so he’s a potential source of power for fantasy purposes. We should see him again soon enough with Philadelphia. It is available in 96% of leagues.
15.0 – Emmet SheehanK/9’s career minor league is an outrageous 15.0. He struck out 88 for 53.1 innings at Double-A Tulsa this season before his recall in June, then went 6.0 frames without a hit against the Giants in his big league debut. Sheehan has several more pitches in his arsenal, including a 90s fastball and a fiendish change. The Texas League batters certainly didn’t have good answers for him in the early months. Take a look at this nonsense:
Rude, bordering on unfair.
1.002 – Like he usually does, Kyle Schwarber a lot came to life this season as soon as the calendar moved to June. His OPS this month is currently 1.002 and he has hit seven bombs in 17 games. When Schwarbs hits shots from the opposite field with a left-handed pitcher, he is well placed.
Schwarber has now hit 54 of his 219 career homers in June and his lifetime OPS for the month is .965. He’s won the National League Player of the Month award for June in each of the past two seasons, which is crazy, and he’s building a pretty decent record to claim his third in a row. If that happens, MLB should probably just name the award after him. Congratulations to everyone who picked it up cheaply in May.
.433 – In case you missed it, Pittsburgh just called the best prospect Henry Davis, the first pick of the 2021 draft. Davis had delivered 23 extra hits (including 11 home runs) in 51 games in the high minors this season while getting on base relentlessly, at a .433 clip. You’re not going to find many receivers with a better power profile over OBP; Davis is currently alone in more than 70% of the leagues.