I tell you often how long the baseball season is, and with that will come injuries. Monday was especially rough as we found out Dustin May needs Tommy John surgery and Luis Robert will miss the next 3-4 months with a hip injury. The White Sox are now down Robert and Eloy Jimenez, who were both expected to be key cogs in their lineup this season. Perhaps this will lead to more playing time for Andrew Vaughn, but you can read more on that below.
With only eight games played on Monday (two postponements made the slate even smaller), we decided to take a look at the top five players at each position on the podcast. We're just over a month in the season so things haven't had the chance to normalize yet. That's exactly how you find Ryan McMahon and Chris Taylor in the top five at multiple positions. Outside of those two, perhaps Carson Kelly and Carlos Rodon are two more of the biggest surprises so far this season. To find out our thoughts on each of these players, make sure to listen to today's podcast!
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Scott had Twins SP Kenta Maeda ranked higher than consensus this offseason, and his slow start didn't throw him off the scent. With a two-start week ahead of him, Maeda delivered big in his first start of the week on Monday night. Scott believes he has corrected what plagued him early this year -- for example, only allowing three hard-hit balls -- and locating his pitches by mixing them up.
Maeda threw 5.1 shutout innings, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out eight batters with 13 swinging strikes on 94 pitches. Chris is also encouraged by Maeda even after coming in a little lower on him than Scott was this preseason. I think he'll land somewhere in the top 25 among SPs.
Don't look now but Angels SP/DH Shohei Ohtani now has nine home runs and six stolen bases. In Roto leagues, he has quietly become one of Fantasy's most valuable hitters due to his power/speed combination, and he delivered again on Monday night, going 2 for 4 with a two-run homer he hit off Tyler Glasnow (who has been one of baseball's most unhittable pitchers this season) that traveled an estimated 427 with a 110.3 mph exit velocity. He did this following being scratched from his scheduled pitching start after taking a pitch off his elbow as a batter the previous day.
Ohtani is averaging four Fantasy points per game, 12th among all hitters. I kind of just wish they would let him play as a hitter only, but Chris isn't ready to get on board with that plan just yet. However, the one concern is whether or not Ohtani can sustain the pace he's on now while playing so often and making starts.
We were all really excited to see Royals SP Daniel Lynch's debut even if the final stat line didn't look so pretty. Here's that line for the top prospect: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 3 K and seven swinging strikes on 74 pitches. Lynch allowed three runs and was wild at times, even giving up a balk. However, as Chris noted, Lynch's slider looked good -- I mean really, really good. He got six whiffs with the slider and only one with his other pitches. He topped out at 97 mph on his fastball, which is also a good sign.
Scott was a bit surprised that he basically only went with the fastball and the slider -- 63 of 74 pitches were one of those two. In his scouting report, he was expected to have a more complete arsenal. Scott came away from the debut a bit underwhelmed.
He's currently rostered in 43% of leagues, and both Scott and Chris agree that number should rise to about 60-65%.
When the Mets traded for SS Francisco Lindor this offseason, the expectation is that he would hit in the heart of their lineup and continue to mash the baseball. We're one month into the season, and after switching leagues Lindor has been stuck in a massive slump. On Monday, Lindor had two more strikeouts and left six Mets runners stranded. He is now in an 0-for-21 funk and his raw stats are quite ugly: .163 BA, 1 HR, .486 OPS.
Scott's concern level is close to zero, but Lindor's struggles from 2020 at least give him some pause. Overall though, nothing in Lindor's batting profile -- advanced stats included -- suggests he's not going to break out of this soon. Both Scott and Chris would be buying low and looking to offer players like Carlos Rodon, Kevin Gausman, and Julio Urias for Lindor. Chris signed off on the idea of offering up Byron Buxton for Lindor -- that deal could probably return you slightly more. The same goes for Shohei Ohtani. This is a prime buy-low spot in what is the single worst 24-game stretch of Lindor's career.
It's important to keep in mind that changing leagues has a notable effect on hitters. The more these hitters see the new pitchers they're facing consistently, the better they will hit. That should be the case for Lindor, who likely hasn't faced most of the pitchers he's going up against since 2019 given the condensed schedule in 2020.
