Now that's how you celebrate a birthday, Trea Turner! The guy just goes out and hits for the third cycle of his career, no big deal. Oh, and he added two steals. Turner is now up to 14 home runs and 18 steals for the season. He's been a slam dunk as a first-round pick in Roto this season and a plus contributor in the second round of H2H points leagues.
Somebody else who has been awesome, regardless of format, is Ozzie Albies. Like many other hitters, Albies has been on fire ever since the calendar changed from April to May. On Wednesday, he finished 5-for-6 with two home runs, seven RBI, two steals, and four runs scored. Are you kidding? In some ways, that might even be better than Turner's cycle! I haven't done it yet but if Albies keeps this up, it won't be long until I move him up to No. 1 in my second base rankings.
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Phillies SP Aaron Nola's underwhelming season continued on Wednesday when he was charged with seven runs against the Miami Marlins. This start in particular was a weird one. He finished with 11 strikeouts in just 4.2 innings yet he only had 10 swinging strikes. Nola was helped out by some the home-plate umpire early on. He also gave up nine hits but was very unlucky. Nola had a .600 BABIP against yet just four of the batted balls were categorized as hard hits, according to Statcast. While his ERA stands at 4.44, his xFIP actually dropped to 3.27 after this start. I know it's hard to keep the faith but this is a lot like Luis Castillo earlier this season. You have to trust the underlying numbers and the track record for Nola. If anybody in your league is panicking, you should try and buy.
The Chicago Cubs scored seven innings in the top of the first against the Brewers on Wednesday. They had a 95% chance to win the game at that point. The Brewers went on to score 15 unanswered runs the rest of the game. A lot of that damage was done by Luis Urias and Willy Adames. Urias finished with two home runs while Adames added a grand slam. I like both quite a bit with the way they're playing, but I still prefer Adames. In 37 games with the Brew Crew, Adames is batting .282 with seven home runs and 28 RBI. That's a 28-homer, 113-RBI pace over 150 games. If you play in a shallower league, I don't have a problem dropping Gleyber Torres or Eugenio Suarez for Adames.