Roto Riteup: July 1, 2017
Justin Smoak’s first inning oppo taco broke the record for most homers in a month!
https://twitter.com/SInow/status/880939832821895169
On the Agenda:
- Gray Shines in Return
- Cole Left Out
- Folty’s No-Ht Bid
- JBJ Caps Off Brilliant June
- Turner’s Multi-Hit Excellence
- Other News
Gray Shines in Return
Jon Gray returned to the mound for the Colorado Rockies with a brilliant effort in Arizona: 6 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, and 10 K. The fastball velocity was right at his 95 mph season average and he really leaned on his slider at 32%, netting nine of the strikeouts and holding the D’Backs to 2-for-15 on the pitch.
Jon Gray, 89mph Slider Movement. pic.twitter.com/r904i9clfL
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I'd say Jon Gray's slider was pretty effective at expanding the zone tonight. #Rockies pic.twitter.com/Vloe8KyXZP
— Matt Kelly (@mattkellyMLB) July 1, 2017
Gray should be on a roster in all formats and I’m open to starting him in Colorado more often than not.
Cole Left Out
I figured Gerrit Cole was a slam dunk for a big outing on Friday evening with the San Francisco Giants coming to town, but after seeing him get walloped, it made some sense. The Giants are dead-ass-last in wOBA against righties at .293, but they ended up being a rough matchup for Cole because of their reliance on left-handed hitters atop the order. Four of their first six batters are lefties and they went 9-for-20 with 6 RBIs and 2 HRs on Friday night.
While not all of the damage was off Cole, they did go 5-for-12 and pushed his season line to .292/.325/.579 against them. All that said, I don’t see how anyone could’ve sat Cole here with due respect to Denard Span, Joe Panik, Brandon Belt, and Brandon Crawford. I would, however, be careful with Cole against heavy lefty lineups.
Folty’s No-Ht Bid
Mike Foltynewicz took a no-hit bid into the ninth inning in Oakland on Friday night, but lost it on a Matt Olson homer before notching an out. It was obviously still a fantastic outing (8 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) and capped off an incredible June for Folty. He put together a 2.97 ERA and 1.21 WHIP despite a hammering at Washington (3.3 IP/11 H/8 ER) mixed in. Outside of that start, he went 7 IP/0 ER, 7 IP/0 ER, 6 IP/2 ER, 5 IP/1 ER, and 8 IP/1 ER. In fact, Folty now has a 3.45 ERA over his last 10 starts.
The issue is that his down starts are really bad. In addition to the thrashing against the Nats, he has a 4 IP/7 ER v. StL and 4 IP/5 ER at SF. The same thing happened last year with five starts of at least 5 ER, all of which were fewer than six innings. If you look at his 2016-17 combined, it’s a 4.11 ERA which is probably true talent meaning he could be between 3.70 and 4.50.
Turner’s Multi-Hit Excellence
Did you know that Justin Turner has two or more hits in 26 of his 57 games played this season? He came off the DL on June 9th and has a filthy .415/.519/.692 line with 5 HR in 79 PA. Additionally, Turner is obliterating lefties this year with an 1.196 OPS and 4 HR in 85 PA so far. He had a .640 OPS and 5 HR in 198 PA against southpaws last year and a .745 OPS with 5 HR in 128 PA back in 2015. Turner remains one of the most underrated hitters in the game.
JBJ Caps Off Brilliant June
Jackie Bradley Jr. finished June with his second straight three-hit game, pushing his line to .353/.431/.578 for the month with 14 extra-base hits among his 36 total hits. He’s actually be on fire since mid-May. After dropping to .182 on May 14th, he had back-to-back multi-hit games with a homer in each and since then he has a .331/.433/.593 line with 8 HR in 171 PA. All of a sudden, his triple slash is better than his 2016 across the board.
Other News
- Clint Frazier is coming to the majors!
- Stephen Vogt hit 2 HR in his third game with Milwaukee
- Austin Barnes hit 2 HR and has quietly been a strong C2 in NL-Only (.935 OPS)
- Jason Vargas dropped his ERA to an AL-best 2.22 and notched his MLB-best 12th win
- Nick Franklin was traded to the Angels for cash
- The Rangers will go with a closer-by-committee right now
Sporer working overtime this weekend. Appreciated, man.