MLB Player News

It’s an ominous-sounding description, but it merely sounds like the Astros don’t believe Brantley is ready to return to the majors, and they want to take it slow moving forward. There is no timetable for his potential return from last year’s shoulder surgery, and it’s starting to feel like there’s a chance he never makes it back to Houston. It certainly feels like his days as a relevant mixed-league fantasy contributor are over.

It was rather surprising that Burleson was even in the lineup tonight, as he was making just his fourth start against a left-handed pitcher. The strong showing puts him up to .272/.306/.437 this season, and while that might not be overly exciting, his .743 OPS is tops on the Cardinals, at least once one excludes the .950 mark posted by Willson Contreras before he got hurt. Burleson remains an iffy played in mixed leagues, but it’d be no surprise if he remains one of the best bats on a subpar offense.

Gray had a 0.89 ERA after five starts, but he’s given up 11 runs in his last two outings, putting him at 3.05. On the plus side, he still has an impressive 53/8 K/BB ratio in 41 1/3 innings. We ‘re not very concerned at this point; Gray will likely get hurt against eventually, but he should be plenty good until then.

Helsley pitched a whole lot during April, but it definitely hasn’t caused any problems yet; he’s posted his best velocity numbers of the year his last two times out, averaging 101.0 mph with his fastball on Sunday and 100.7 mph tonight. He’s gone 14 straight appearances without allowing an earned run and the one unearned run he’s given up during the stretch was an automatic runner in the 10th inning.

Detmers is high on the short list of the game’s most frustrating pitchers. After a very encouraging open that saw him go 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA in his first four starts, he’s 0-4 with an 8.46 ERA in his last five turns. His peripherals backed up the hot start, but they also mostly back up the huge decline since. We have no clue what’s next from him, but we’d be hesitant to give up on him in mixed leagues; his stuff really does seem to be better than it was last year.

It was a bad call from Washington and an incredibly difficult pitch to bunt for Guillorme, being that it was almost a foot off the plate, but Washington trashed Guillorme after the game, taking no responsibility for his decision and hanging Guillorme out to dry. Unless Washington cools down and reconsiders that stance, Guillorme might not play as much going forward.

Greene walked nine in his previous two starts, but he issued just one free pass tonight. He also went without giving up a homer, though Corbin Carroll’s shot to right to lead off the bottom of the first would have been a homer had the game been played in Cincinnati, rather than Arizona. Greene improved to 2-2 with a 3.27 ERA. In spite of his success, the Reds are just 2-7 in his starts.

Once again, Cecconi excelled his first time through the lineup and got hit hard afterwards. It suggests that he’d probably be better off as a middle reliever, though with two starters down, the Diamondbacks will probably keep him in the rotation for now. He’s 1-3 with a 5.27 ERA since making his season debut on Apr. 21.

Benson figured to play less with TJ Friedl back, but he gained an unfortunate reprieve when Friedl suffered a broken thumb. There’s still some fantasy potential here, even though he’s been an obvious disappointment with his .193/.288/.393 line to date. He now has five homers and eight steals in 153 plate appearances.

Gurriel got off to a really fast start and still posted decent run and RBI numbers for a while after that concluded, but he’s been a mess lately; he’s batting just .160 with no homers and three RBI in his last 19 games. On the plus side, his strikeout rate is fine and Statcast thinks he’s been fairly unlucky to date. He figures to retain some mixed-league value going forward.

Stone struck out only two and walked three tonight, but there wasn’t much hard contact from the injury-riddled Giants lineup. It’s Stone’s fourth straight quality start, and he’s now 4-1 with a 3.27 ERA overall. We don’t think he’s really this good, but since he definitely pitches for the right team, he’s worth playing in mixed leagues.