• Fernando Rodney does not look good right now. “Captain Crooked Hat” gave up three runs on three hits and a walk to blow what should have been an easy save and force extra innings (The Mariners later took the lead off Brad Boxberger — lucky them). Some might argue Rodney should have escaped if not for a Robinson Cano errant double play throw, but it’s not like Cano put all those runners on to start. Rodney now owns a 4.57 xFIP, but, hey, at least it’s better than his 6.98 ERA. While Rodney’s walk rate is hovering at the cusp of acceptable (10%), that his whiff rate has dropped precipitously (down to 21%) is a big problem. His HardHit% is a bit elevated at 23%, but he’s been around those marks the last few years. Aside from the batted ball profile, owners might want to hang their hat on the fact his velocity is the same as last year and his SwStr% is still a fairly healthy 11%. Maybe there’s a rebound in store, but he’s going to need to turn it around fairly soon as the leash is getting shorter.

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Episode 233

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live!

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss the injury news around Devin Mesoraco, Yasmani Grandal, Yan Gomes, Jonathan Lucroy, Travis d’Arnaud, Matt Wieters, Avisail Garcia, Michael Morse, Shane Victorino, James Loney, Devon Travis, Steven Souza, Johnny Cueto, Danny Duffy, and Wily Peralta. They dive into the performances of Charlie Morton, Phil Hughes, Drew Hutchison, and Prince Fielder. They end with bullpen discussions about Oakland, Texas, and Arizona.

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• Holy cow. The Reds have finally placed Devin Mesoraco on the DL with his hip injury.

Mesoraco hasn’t caught in a game since April 12 due to an impingement in the hip. He was able to pinch-hit in 13 games and start as designated hitter in four, hitting .178 in 45 at-bats.

A month and half to determine if he should go on the DL.  Additionally, there is good chance he will need surgery and miss the rest of the season.

• David Wright came out and said he is dealing with spinal stenois.

Wright will cease baseball activities and take medication for the next week, while continuing a program of core strengthening and back stabilization exercises. The Mets believe it will be enough to eliminate the flare-ups of lower back tightness that Wright has recently been experiencing. They do not consider Wright’s condition degenerative, according to assistant general manager John Ricco.

“The doctors aren’t that worried about it,” Ricco said. “It’s just something that seems to be taking longer than we initially thought. The way it was progressing, they thought it would be gone by now.”

He is making little to no progress on getting better and has decided to relocate to California to be closer to his doctor.

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Yes, the best in-season ERA estimator is strikeouts minus walks. You can use that tidbit to find a few sleepers in season, for sure.

But when you look at Matt Shoemaker and Phil Hughes right now, you realize there are perils when it comes to using the stat in the offseason. And really, you may start to see some of the limits of the stat even when it comes to in-season work.

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The Braves started the year with the low-upside and low-downside combination of Eric Stults and Trevor Cahill, but have now moved to two younger starters to hold up the back end of their rotation, one of which was expected and one of which is a surprise.
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You don’t have to dig too deep to find an article on Robinson Cano’s early-season struggles. Everywhere from regional newspapers to ESPN.com, the extremely wealthy 32-year-old’s inability to hit baseballs is a hot topic. Rightly so, one would surmise, seeing as the guy’s hitting .253/.295/.337.

I still included Cano in the second tier — also known as the New Orleans Tier — of my May second-base rankings. (Spoiler alert: The tiers for next week’s June rankings will be named after Kurt Russell films.) In fact, I had Cano ranked second overall, and not a single commenter took umbrage with that ranking.

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With the catchers already released, we’re in the midst of our first in-season rankings update which will run through next week. The remarkably stacked first base position remains so almost two months into the season with many of the expected studs doing their part while some mid-round assets have emerged to keep the position deep and strong even as a few would-be studs have sputtered and failed to deliver up to expectations just yet.

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Agenda

1. DFS Chatter
2. Daily DFS – deGrom and Salazar
3. Tomorrow’s Targets – No, Kendrick, Van Slyke, Lagares
4. Factor Grid

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Episode 37 – Classic DFS Day

The latest episode of “Field of Streams” is live!

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Brad Johnson discuss the Memorial Day weekend, some weather forecasts to keep an eye on, Brandon Crawford’s 2015 season, identifying Jose Urena, the Angels needing to trade for a left-handed bat, and Anthony Rizzo’s seemingly predictable aging curve.

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It’s the unofficial start of summer, and as the fantasy season heads into June, here are two bats who have been hot lately. As a reminder, the players discussed in this column are typically more suited for mono leagues, and I use CBS for the ownership percentages.
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