Travis

Bazzana

Bazzana has 14 home runs on the season. He hit a solo shot off Chris Murphy in the first inning and another solo shot off Davis Martin in the sixth inning. Bazzana has been more of a solid contributor than difference maker in fantasy so far. He’s hitting .252 with 14 home runs, 19 stolen bases, 52 runs scored and 56 RBI.

Lewis is back handling first base and hitting fifth after missing just one game with shoulder soreness. The 27-year-old has piled up 14 homers and 14 steals in 462 plate appearances this season, but he doesn’t offer enough batting average upside or counting stats to be relevant outside of extremely deep formats.

The homer was his 12th through 112 games, and the steal was his 19th. Bazzana has been hitting well of late, but he had been stuck on 18 steals since Aug. 21, going 0-for-1 in his previous 16 games.

Bazzana has started only three of the Guardians’ last six games, but he’s come up big in all of those and in his one appearance off the bench during the span. Over the four games, he’s collected two homers, two doubles, three singles and eight RBI, all in Cleveland victories. He’s back up to .244/.345/.387 for the season. It’s unclear if that will win him back any time against lefties, but it doesn’t matter for the near future; the Guardians aren’t slated to face any southpaws over the next week.

Talk about taking over a game. Down two in the eighth, Bazzana socked a two-run shot to tie the game up. Then in the 10th, he laced a game-winning single to give the Guardians their second walk-off hit of the day during their double-header sweep against the Tigers. Funny enough, Bazzana didn’t even start this game with a left-handed pitcher on the mound, but came in when Chase DeLauter left with an injury. He’s had a rough second half with a .692 OPS and has lost some playing time, so it was nice to see him take a big step in the right direction.

Bazzana singled for all four hits. The 23-year-old’s steal gives him 16 on his rookie campaign, while the three-RBI night bumps that total to 39. Bazzana has had some real ups and downs, but the future certainly looks bright for the 23-year-old based on those aforementioned ups.

Bazzana is still drawing walks, but he’s hitting .189 with only one extra-base hit in his last 21 games, leaving him at .235/.332/.372 overall. There might be a slight chance of the Guardians sending him down at some point, clearing the way for Angel Genao to play second base regularly.

Bazzana has sat against two of the three lefties the Guardians have faced since the callup of Angel Genao, who is playing second base and batting seventh tonight. It seems like it’ll be a trend unless an injury opens up more time for Genao at other positions. Bazzana is hitting just .192/.302/.240 against southpaws thus far.

Genao takes a seat with Travis Bazzana at the keystone and Brayan Rocchio at shortstop. The 22-year-old top prospect has made some serious waves, hitting .368 (7-for-19) with one homer and two RBI in five games since being promoted from Triple-A Columbus last week. He boasts impressive contact skills and has shown some impressive over-the-fence pop over the last few months. He’s seeing the ball extremely well at the moment and should be rostered in all fantasy formats, even if he’s going to cede the occasional start to Bazzana at second base when Rocchio is in the lineup.

The 23-year-old rookie infielder has seen his production fall off dramatically after his hot start, slashing a troublesome .216/.312/.358 with six homers, 25 RBI and nine stolen bases over 237 plate appearances since the start of June. He’ll get a day to clear his head with left-hander Noah Schultz on the mound for the White Sox.