Baseball Daily Dose: Dose: Digging Dickerson
It’s probably time to start paying attention to what Alex Dickerson is doing. The 26-year-old outfielder went deep off Blue Jays reliever Franklin Morales in the top of the eighth inning Wednesday at Rogers Centre in Toronto, becoming the first Padres rookie to homer in four consecutive games.
Dickerson finished 1-for-4 with one RBI on Wednesday, 2-for-5 with a homer and three RBI on Tuesday, 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBI on Monday, and 3-for-5 with a homer and three runs scored on Sunday. That’s quite a four-day stretch.
All told, Dickerson holds an .897 OPS with six home runs, four doubles, one triple, and 17 RBI in 31 games (19 starts) this season at the major league level. He also has two stolen bases and 14 runs scored, and this includes a tasteless cup of coffee in May.
We might normally dismiss this sudden breakout as fluky — Dickerson has never been considered a top prospect and he’s past that age now — but the dude was batting .382/.425/.622 with 10 home runs and 51 RBI in 62 games this season at Triple-A El Paso, with just 27 strikeouts in 241 plate appearances.
Melvin Upton is out of the picture now in San Diego, having been traded to the Blue Jays on Tuesday morning, so Dickerson is lined up for everyday-like playing time down the stretch. Yeah, we’re buying.
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.
Harrell And Alvarez Head To Texas
It’s not Chris Sale or Jose Quintana or Vincent Velasquez or one of the Rays’ starting pitchers, but the Rangers made two sneaky-good additions on Wednesday in acquiring right-handed starter Lucas Harrell and left-handed reliever Dario Alvarez from the Braves in exchange for second base prospect Travis Demeritte.
Alvarez has registered 28 strikeouts in 15 innings of relief this season while fooling both left-handed and right-handed batters. He should have an immediate positive impact on the Texas bullpen, but let’s focus on Harrell here because his case brings the most fantasy relevance.
Harrell entered the 2016 season as a 31-year-old with a 4.84 ERA and 1.58 WHIP in 401 2/3 career major league innings. He had spent the entire 2015 campaign in the Korea Baseball Organization and didn’t pitch all that well. But the Braves took a shot in the dark in May, signing him to a minor league contract, and he’s been excellent in three of five starts since making his season debut on July 2. Those other two outings weren’t pretty and Harrell still has some control issues, but he shut out the Twins over six innings in his final start for Atlanta and he holds a 3.38 ERA over 29 1/3 total frames this year.
Harrell is expected to make his Rangers debut this Saturday against the Royals. We should probably expect a rise in ERA with the move from the National League to the American League — or simply due to natural regression — but he does get a significant boost in win potential and he should remain a valuable streaming option in mixed fantasy leagues.
As for the Braves, they picked up a potential building block in Demeritte. The 21-year-old was drafted 30th overall in 2013 and was sporting a .935 OPS with 25 home runs, 59 RBI, and 13 stolen bases through 88 games this season for High-A High Desert. He fell off the radar somewhat in 2015 while serving an 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension.
Conley Keeps Rolling Against The Phillies
Marlins starter Adam Conley was certainly not at his sharpest on Wednesday afternoon against the Phillies, yielding eight hits and three walks, but he managed to post 6 2/3 scoreless innings with six strikeouts as Miami routed the visiting Phils by 10 runs, 11-1.
The 26-year-old left-hander now has a 3.21 ERA and 155 strikeouts over his last 162 2/3 innings dating back to August 2015. He’s hit a couple of rough patches this season, but Conley has always been able to bounce back quickly and there are no workload issues because he threw a total of 174 innings between the minors and majors last year. Conley was one of our favorite sleepers this spring, and you could get him in the later rounds of just about any draft. He doesn’t even show up on the logged average draft position data over at Yahoo because his ADP was somewhere in the high 300s.
National League Quick Hits: Mets manager Terry Collins said that Jeurys Familia will not be available for Thursday’s game against the Rockies after blowing his first save in 53 games on Wednesday night against the Cardinals … Making his second straight start in center field, Trea Turner went 3-for-4 with three RBI in the Nationals’ defeat of the Indians on Wednesday afternoon … Yasiel Puig (hamstring) remained out of the Dodgers’ starting lineup Wednesday versus the Rays … ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reports that trade talks involving Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy are “intensifying” … Reds right-hander Dan Straily allowed just one run on three hits over 7 2/3 innings Wednesday in a win over the Giants … Gerrit Cole allowed only one run in a masterful complete game victory over the Mariners on Wednesday … Rockies outfield prospect David Dahl launched his first career home run Wednesday night against the Orioles … Jose Reyes (intercostal strain) is out until Friday at the earliest … Hunter Pence (hamstring) could return to the Giants’ active roster this weekend … Andrew McCutchen crushed a three-run bomb Wednesday and finished the night 3-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored … Cardinals closer Seung Hwan Oh struck out one batter in a spotless ninth inning to earn his sixth save on Wednesday … Pirates trainer Todd Tomczyk said Tyler Glasnow (shoulder) could pick up a baseball “in the coming days” … Dodgers lefty Brett Anderson (back) is scheduled to go three innings in his rehab debut Thursday with High-A Rancho Cucamonga … Yasmany Tomas slugged two home runs Wednesday in the Diamondbacks’ blowout win over the Brewers … Nationals placed infielder Stephen Drew on the 15-day disabled list with vertigo-like symptoms … Freddie Freeman had a monster day Wednesday, going 4-for-4 with a homer, five RBI, and a stolen base to lead the Braves past the Twins … Pirates prospect Steven Brault will start against the Brewers on Friday … Ramiro Pena was scratched from the Giants’ lineup on Wednesday due to a sore groin … Pirates right-hander Ryan Vogelsong (eye) allowed just two runs over seven innings in a rehab start Wednesday at Triple-A Indianapolis.
