Precocious New York Mets rookie first baseman Pete Alonso homered twice on Tuesday and became the first player to deliver 11 extra-base hits in his first 10 career games. It is quite the achievement, and Alonso looks like a top-10 first baseman. Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar, however, has come to the plate 44 times, and he still boasts nary an extra-base hit. A season after Aguilar roped 35 home runs among his 60 extra-base hits, securing top-10 status, would fantasy managers take the rookie, with 10 games of big league experience, over Aguilar? I am guessing most would.
As you might have guessed, if you know my work, I would not. This is not to say we should gloss over Aguilar sputtering to a .111 batting average after his 10 games, or what Alonso has done, but past performance does matter. I believe Aguilar will be fine, and if he had a stretch like this in June, nobody would notice. Below are players who enter Wednesday looking for their maiden extra-base hits of the young season, like Aguilar, and in order of their plate appearances. What, me worry? In a few cases, perhaps we should. With Aguilar, sorry, but he is drawing walks. He is not striking out anywhere near the degree of the leaders, and I will buy low, if that is actually possible.
Tommy Pham, OF, Tampa Bay Rays: Perhaps only I find this stuff interesting, but 91 players have 45 or more plate appearances this season, and Pham is the only one with mere singles to his name. Pham has 12 of them, and he is 5-for-5 on stolen bases and is among the leaders with 10 walks, so, yeah, nothing to worry about here. Few expect Pham to hit 30 home runs, but this is not Duane Kuiper. He averaged 22 home runs the past two seasons, so that number feels about right for 2019, health permitting.
Eloy Jimenez, OF, Chicago White Sox: Ah, another rookie that went prior to Alonso in every league I saw. Jimenez was supposed to hit right away and hit as we expected Vlad Guerrero Jr. would have, had he made the Toronto Blue Jays. Jimenez looks a tad overwhelmed, I suppose, and that surprises me because he should not be. He dropped in the lineup to seventh Tuesday, and that mildly surprises me, too. Are the White Sox concerned? The contract extension alleviated concern of his active roster status. Who thought his slugging percentage would match batting average, even after 10 games? The high strikeout rate looks bad, but no way do I punt in a fantasy league. Let me be clear: Jimenez is darn close to Guerrero as a hitter, so be patient. The White Sox might demote him before May, however, and that would make your decision easy.
Ben Zobrist, 2B/OF, Chicago Cubs: The team's occasional leadoff hitter adds value in OBP/points formats, but his homers-plus-steals was 12 last season, 14 in 2017, and he is 38. Ignore in roto leagues.
Billy Hamilton, OF, Kansas City Royals: He can score from second base on a fly ball to center field, but he cannot stretch a single into a double. Hamilton is 2-for-3 on stolen base attempts. Anything short of 40 steals, if he gets 500 PA, is a mild disappointment, but so far I would say we should be prepared for precisely this result.
Josh Reddick, OF, Houston Astros: Reddick hit 32 home runs for the 2012 Athletics. Since then, he has not surpassed 20 blasts. This is a platoon option, but he should get to 15 or so home runs that way. That is not so valuable in a 10-team roto or points format.
Albert Almora Jr., OF, Chicago Cubs: Cubs outfielders have three home runs, two by Jason Heyward. Almora is not out there for his bat.
Kendrys Morales, 1B, Oakland Athletics: Morales is only out there for his bat, and it has yet to show up. He is already platooning with Mark Canha until Matt Olson returns from injury, and after that, well, since Khris Davis is a far better designated hitter than left fielder, Morales could be out of work. That matters to those in AL-only formats.
Francisco Cervelli, C, Pittsburgh Pirates: Any catcher who can hit at least .270 is worth a look, even sans power.
Daniel Robertson, 2B/SS, Tampa Bay Rays: Just to be thorough, that is all of the 200 players with 33 or more plate appearances who have yet to earn an extra-base hit. Robertson was helpful in 2018 and might still be, but playing time is only going to drop soon as Joey Wendle and Matt Duffy regain health.
Tuesday recap
Box scores
Highlights:
• Austin Meadows, OF, Tampa Bay Rays: 4-for-5, HR, 4 RBIs, SB
• Mitch Garver, C, Minnesota Twins: 4-for-5, 2 HR, 2 RBIs, 3 R
• Pete Alonso, 1B, New York Mets: 2-for-5, 2 HR, 3 RBIs
• Luis Castillo, SP, Cincinnati Reds: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
• Derek Holland, SP, San Francisco Giants: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K
Lowlights:
• Harrison Bader, OF, St. Louis Cardinals: 0-for-4, 3 K
• Fernando Tatis Jr., SS, San Diego padres: 0-for-4, 3 K
• Joey Lucchesi, SP, San Diego Padres: 4 IP, 7 H, 7 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
• Freddy Peralta, SP, Milwaukee Brewers: 3 1/3 IP, 8 H, 7 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
• Jose Leclerc, RP, Texas Rangers: 1/3 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Tuesday takeaways:
Mike Trout was removed with a right groin strain. He is day-to-day.
- Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) April 10, 2019
• I do not want to make a big deal of this yet, until it actually is a big deal, but the best player in the sport did not finish his Tuesday game, and this is why. We are all, technically, day-to-day, by the way, but we hope Trout misses just a few days. I am not going to panic, but let us be clear: From a long time of covering sports, it seems rare that any groin strain, even mild for someone we view as Superman, is truly day-to-day. The Angels never replaced fellow outfielder Justin Upton, it is safe to say, and it is tough to roster any Angels hitter other than Trout, but again, let us all hope Trout plays Friday or at all this weekend at Wrigley Field because the repercussions if he cannot are sad.
• The worst pitching line of Tuesday was Miami Marlins lefty Wei-Yin Chen taking one for the proverbial team by allowing 10 earned runs in two messy relief innings, with four swings resulting in a home run. Who rosters Chen in a fantasy league? That is why it is not among the rough lines above. I try to stick to fantasy relevant options like Lucchesi and Peralta in that section; promising strikeout hurlers. I still like them, by the way, though Peralta's inconsistency is a drag. Six of those runs came in the first inning! Jacob deGrom, Stephen Strasburg, German Marquez, Aaron Nola and Chris Sale all permitted five or more runs in a messy night, and none really concerns me much, including Boston's Sale. I believe he is simply taking longer to get into some groove that we know he has. Buy low, but all bets are off if we hear of any, even minor, injury. Meanwhile, deGrom can start another quality starts streak. The Twins can hit!
• Give the Mets credit for promoting Alonso when most teams would have played the legal and expected financial "game" and let him percolate at Triple-A for a few weeks, and to fantasy managers for believing. Alonso already boasts 11 extra-base hits. He looks like a top-10 first baseman the way Chicago White Sox veteran Jose Abreu does. The Met that concerns me is the one nearly leading the most dropped list; Brandon Nimmo homered against the Twins but also struck out twice. He has whiffed in 19 of 33 at-bats, tied for the most strikeouts with Toronto Blue Jays infielder Brandon Drury, merely holding third base for some guy named Vlad Jr. Nimmo is in a precarious spot, too, in theory. His career K rate entering the season was 27 percent, with little room to rise 20 percent if he is to hit for average and power. Keep him around and hope it gets better.
Health report:
• While we all await further word on Trout, there is no shortage of other injury notes. Houston Astros infielder Alex Bregman, a first-round pick in real life and this season in fantasy, has a hamstring injury. For now, he is, according to the team ... wait for it ... day-to-day. Yes, of course. The Astros, unlike the Angels, boast significant depth and could replace Bregman, in name and not numbers, with Aledmys Diaz, Tyler White or others.
• The update on New York Yankees right-hander Luis Severino is not positive, as we are looking at mid-June, at the earliest, for his return from shoulder woes. The team calls the latest news a lat strain. I am thinking Severino might not pitch until after the All-Star break, and by the way, this could last all season long. If someone in your league is buying, even for a top-40 starting pitcher or outfielder at this point, I sell.
• Cleveland Indians right-hander Mike Clevinger thought his back injury was no big deal. Then manager Terry Francona said Tuesday that Clevinger will not even pick up a baseball for two months. Try to keep Clevinger rostered and, yes, over Severino. Man, two months is a long time.
Closing time:
• There were four saves on Tuesday, all from the American League and none the least bit surprising. Anthony Swarzak is the Seattle closer as long as he stays healthy and performs well. That bullpen lacks better options. Toronto's Ken Giles put a few Red Sox on base to start the ninth but then cruised for the save. Cody Allen actually struck a few Brewers out for his third save. Roberto Osuna is not a concern. Neither is Jose Leclerc, despite permitting a homer to powerless Jarrod Dyson, of all people. Stuff happens.
• The Cubs, Nationals and Rockies enter April 10 with nary a save among them. Washington closer Sean Doolittle is 3-0. No saves. Do not worry. The Twins and Reds entered May 2018 with only three saves each. Raisel Iglesias finished with 30. Nobody complained.
W2W4:
• Detroit Tigers lefty Matthew Boyd enters his day game versus the Indians with the highest K rate of qualified starting pitchers, and 23 whiffs in 11 1/3 innings. It remains unclear if Boyd, who struck out 159 hitters in 170 1/3 innings a season ago, has turned some corner into some version of what Chris Sale generally is, but add him in case it continues. The Indians are not scoring many runs. Trevor Bauer, meanwhile, is the most unhittable starting pitcher, with one hit allowed in 14 frames. Figure this is a scoreless game in the 15th inning, right? You know baseball. Probably not.
• ESPN+ features the Trout-less Angels and Felix Pena, whose fastball looks nothing like it did a season ago, against Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff. Go with Woodruff against that shell of a lineup and do not let Tommy La Stella beat you!