by Will Overton
Games mean more than ever right now for fantasy owners and playoff hunting teams alike. And the performances of some of the game’s best seem to be rising to the occasion of both. As well as some more under the radar guys.
Here is the rundown of last night’s action:
- With two weeks to go in the season still, Miguel Cabrera set career high’s for himself in Hr’s and RBI last night with 2 HR’s and 6 RBI. That night gave him 40 HR’s for the first time in his career and 129 RBI. With so many great stories in baseball the season Miguel Cabrera is having has slipped under the radar, but it’s truly an incredible season.
- We got another glimpse into the potential of Nate Eovaldi’s future last night. Eovaldi pitched eight shutout innings last night with four hits allowed and two walks, as well as five strikeouts. Eovaldi has been all over the place since joining the Marlins this season, but the future is still bright. We haven’t seen as many K’s as we’d like this season, but that could and should come in time.
- This has been a rough season for Ian Kennedy following up his near Cy Young season last year with a very mediocre output this season. He’s trying to finish strong though and that’s what his last two games have been. Kennedy went 8 IP last night and allowed only one run, striking out six. Kennedy has allowed just the one run in his last 15.1 IP and seems poised to finish strong.
- Things are starting to slow down a bit here in September for Alejandro De Aza, but he hasn’t run completely dry on fantasy value. De Aza went 2 – 4 last night including a HR, his 8th of the season. De Aza was just 3 for his last 25 going into this game. De Aza is going to need more games like last night because with Dayan Viciedo and Dewayne Wise, the outfield is getting crowded in Chicago and fantasy owners need De Aza on the field.
- Another start and another win for Yovani Gallardo who is 8 – 0 in his last 10 starts and hasn’t lost since July 26th, almost two months ago now. Gallardo pitched 6.2 scoreless innings last night and while he walked four, he still managed to avoid damage. Apart from getting beat up three starts ago, Gallardo has been lights out from July 31st on. Just imagine if we could actually get a full season of this Gallardo and not just a half season.
- The hits keep on coming for Norichika Aoki from the leadoff spot in Milwaukee. And with the hits comes the steals as well. Aoki was 2 -3 last night with 2 RBI and 1 SB. Aoki is 13 – 31 in his last eight games with 4 SB’s. He also has 8 RBI in these eight games, which isn’t common for a leadoff hitter. For the rest of the season Aoki is a standard league worthy OF.
- It looks like Joe Mauer is working to run down Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera for the AL batting title. Mauer went 3 – 4 last night and is 10 – 16 in his last four games, and hitting .474 for the month of September, raising his season average to .325. Mauer has clearly moved back into the discussion as a top five catcher with the season he’s having.
- The month of September seems to be bringing out the best in Homer Bailey. Last night Bailey went 7.1 IP with 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB and 4 K to win his 12th game of the season. In four September stats Bailey hasn’t allowed more than two runs and has a 1.55 ERA, along with 26 K’s in 29 IP. When he’s going good Bailey has top level stuff.
- He won’t be part of Cy Young talks, and his low strikeout totals keep fantasy owners from raving about the guy, but Kyle Lohse is having a fantastic season. Lohse threw seven scoreless innings last night, scattering four hits and two walks, striking out five. This starts improved his record to 15 – 3 and lowered his ERA to 2.71. He doesn’t strikeout a ton of guys, but fantasy owners can make an exception for a guy with numbers like Lohse has this season.
- This hasn’t been quite the season that I had hoped for from Erick Aybar, but he has turned things around and gotten his average up to .295 after last night. Aybar was 3 – 4 last night with a pair of runs scored and a SB. The steal was just his 17th of the season which is surprising considering the speed he possesses.
- You have to like to brief glimpse we have seen of the Mariners 22 year old Erasmo Ramirez. Last night he went 8 IP and allowed just two runs, walking none and striking out six. In his last two games he has allowed 4 runs in 15 IP with a 12:1 K/BB ratio. His next start is going to be in Los Angeles against the Angles which could be tough, but Ramirez may still be a quality deep league add.
