Baseball Daily Dose: Dose: Yu Got What I Need
Follow @drewsilv and @Rotoworld_BB on Twitter.
The two days following the MLB All-Star Game are usually the two slowest sports days of the year, unless you’re into the ESPYs or something. MLB players are soaking up the rare time they get to spend with their families or to get away for a short summer vacation, and the writers who cover those players are doing the same. There were just a few headline-worthy stories from Wednesday …
Editor’s Note: Don’t whiff on this special FanDuel offer: win your first contest or get your money back (up to $10) to keep playing. Try FanDuel now.
Darvish Due Back This Saturday
Rangers ace Yu Darvish got off to a late start this season as he concluded his rehabilitation from Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery and then he landed on the disabled list in early June — after making just three major league starts — because of lingering discomfort in his neck and right shoulder. Well, it’s time to restart his 2016 campaign yet again.
Darvish is scheduled to return to the Rangers’ starting rotation this Saturday for a road start against the Chicago Cubs. That’s a tough first matchup back and he wasn’t exactly dominant on his two-start minor league rehab assignment (8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 10 K in 7.0 IP) but the right-hander should be safe for activation in fantasy leagues next week when he pitches at Kansas City. And then his next outing will likely be at home versus the light-hitting A’s.
Darvish has been brilliant since signing with the Rangers out of Japan in 2012, boasting a 3.26 career ERA and 699 career strikeouts in 561 major league innings. He holds a 2.87 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 15 2/3 innings (three starts) this season.
Texas looks like one of the top teams in baseball coming out of the All-Star break, at least offensively. Darvish should rack up the wins and strikeouts in the second half if he can finally push himself away from the disabled list.
Pomeranz Piquing Interest All Over
Only seven months ago, Athletics vice president Billy Beane traded Drew Pomeranz, named last week to his first All-Star Game in his first year with the Padres, in exchange for left-handed reliever Marc Rzepczynski and light-hitting first baseman Yonder Alonso.
Rzepczynski has walked 17 batters in 28 2/3 innings this season out of the Oakland bullpen and Alonso is slashing .251/.313/.348 with four home runs in 86 games as the Athletics’ starter-by-default at first base. Throw that trade on a growing pile of bad recent moves the A’s have made under Beane. People are starting to take notice.
Pomeranz, meanwhile, boasts a 2.47 ERA, 1.059 WHIP, and 115 strikeouts in 102 innings this season for San Diego and he even threw a scoreless fourth inning Tuesday in the Midsummer Classic at Petco Park. He has become the Padres’ ace and a fan favorite, which of course means that the organization is now looking to trade him.
Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune heard from a source Wednesday that “about 10 teams have inquired about Pomeranz’s availability” and the Padres “will listen” to all offers leading up to the August 1 non-waiver trade deadline. The 27-year-old left-hander is currently under contractual control through 2018, and the Padres can’t realistically expect to become a contender between now and then. It makes sense to get younger, and to strike while the iron is hot on a player who has a history of durability issues.
A change of scenery might help Pomeranz in the wins department — speaking in fantasy terms here — but leaving the cavernous confines of Petco Park will almost definitely be a drawback for his ERA. We’ve heard talk of the Rangers, Marlins, Red Sox, and Orioles checking in on the Pomeranz market. Expect the chatter to pick up as the baseball world catches a jump-start coming out of the break.
Brantley Rehab Back Underway
While most MLB players are putting in family time or catching up on sleep or drinking fruity drinks on a beach, injured Indians star Michael Brantley is working toward finally getting back on the field. Limited to just 39 major league at-bats this year due to complications with his surgically-repaired right shoulder, Brantley played in his second rehab game in three days Wednesday evening at Low-A Lake County, going 2-for-3 with a double in the Lake County Captains’ loss to the Cedar Rapid Kernels, a Low-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.
Brantley is now 3-for-5 through two rehab games — though this would technically qualify as his second rehab assignment of the season. Here’s hoping his health cooperates fully this time and he can join an exciting stretch run in the American League Central. If all goes according to plan, it figures he’ll be back on the Indians’ active roster in about 10 days.
Brantley, 29, batted .319/.382/.494 with 35 homers, 90 doubles, 181 RBI, 38 stolen bases, and 162 runs scored in 293 games between 2014-2015. He can be a fantasy monster when he’s 100 percent, and the Indians can surround him with a pretty good roster this summer and possibly into the fall.
Subscribe To The Rotoworld Baseball Podcast
D.J. Short (@djshort) and I (@drewsilv) are both in our eighth year with Rotoworld and we finally started a fantasy baseball podcast this season, back in May. We record every Thursday night and the new episodes usually drop Friday morning. It’s about a 35-minute listen, covering the latest fantasy-relevant headlines with debates and analysis mixed in. We also take questions from readers (tweet us or send them to [email protected]). Subscribe via iTunes or via RSS with audioBoom. We also throw up a standalone Rotoworld Baseball Podcast post on the MLB page every Friday. Subscribe, listen, rate, review. There are already several episodes in the chamber.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
Recommended article from FiveFilters.org: Most Labour MPs in the UK Are Revolting.
