Advertisement

Mostly MLB Notes: Talking Corey Kluber, Josh Reddick and a look around the league

Mostly MLB Notes: Talking Corey Kluber, Josh Reddick and a look around the league

What’s going on with Corey Kluber? Last year’s Cy Young winner has yet to win a game this season and is sporting a 4.24 ERA. He’s been especially bad of late, as he’s allowed 14 earned runs and 31 hits over his last three starts, spanning over just 17.1 innings. Some of this may be attributed to Yan Gomes getting injured, as Kluber owns a 2.58 ERA over 45 games with Gomes catching compared to a 4.66 ERA over the other 36 games when throwing to someone else. Kluber also has a poor defense defense working behind him to go along with a shaky bullpen. But his SwStr% (12.9) and GB/FB ratio (1.87) are both career highs, and his 18.2 K-BB% remains top-20 in MLB, so there’s plenty of reason to suggest his start to the 2015 season is flukier than him being the best pitcher in the AL last year. Go try to trade for Kluber if his owner thinks otherwise.

[It's not too late to sign up for Yahoo Sports Fantasy Baseball!]

This councilman went to the bathroom with a hot mic, although he didn’t quite live up to Frank Drebin’s standards.

Here’s an ATM exploding in a robber’s face.

This person isn’t very good at parking.

Josh Reddick has been one of the best hitter’s in baseball this season, sporting a .391/.455/.652 line with a 5:8 K:BB ratio over 69 ABs. He has two homers and eight RBI over the past three games, giving him 20 ribbies on the year over 19 games. He’s even more valuable if you can platoon, as Reddick sports a 1.165 OPS against righties, and he was moved to the third spot in the lineup Sunday. He’s an injury risk, but it’s crazy Reddick is only owned in 50% of Yahoo leagues (he’s two seasons removed from hitting 32 home runs), as that number should be 100 (the slugger owns a career 78.1% SB success rate as well). A couple of weeks back I bid on both Reddick and Travis Snider in a high stakes NFBC league, going a little higher on the latter. I’m clearly going to be regretting that decision over the rest of 2015.

Headlines of the Week: Woman Sets Fire On Car Over Refused Cigarette...Monkey Drop Kicks A Guy Who Gave It The Finger...Professor At Texas A&M Galveston Fails Entire Class...Tortoise, 90, Fitted With Wheels Following Rat Attack...Chernobyl Fox Makes Five-Decker Sandwich...Tuna Company In Hot Water After Worker Is Cooked Alive In 6 Tons Of Fish...Grandfather Says He’s Afraid To Use His Dial-Up After Receiving $24,000 AT&T Bill...Collagen-Infused Japanese Beer Promises To Make Drinkers More Attractive...Man Who Had Sex With Postbox Found Dead Outside Chinese Restaurant.

Quick Hits: Jake Marisnick is batting .382 with 13 runs scored, three homers, 12 RBI and nine steals (while getting caught just once) over 68 at-bats. The run/RBI production is especially impressive given he’s hit mostly ninth, and while he’s sure to regress (he currently owns a .423 BABIP), Marisnick shouldn’t be available in 30% of Yahoo leagues like he is with his power/speed ability. He also made this catch over the weekend...A.J. Burnett has a 1.45 ERA over 31.0 innings and has yet to win a single game. Meanwhile, Santiago Casilla has three wins (and seven saves) over 11.2 innings despite a 1.46 WHIP (higher than Burnett’s ERA!). Casilla became the first pitcher in baseball history Saturday to throw two pitches, give up two hits and record a save, thanks to this bonkos scenario that somehow happened twice on the same day...Matt Carpenter is on pace to finish with 95 doubles. The MLB record is 67...Jorge Rondon isn’t on your fantasy team, and that’s a good thing, since he had one of the worst outings you’ll ever see Friday, when he allowed eight runs (seven earned) without recording an out.

Police Blotter: Man Arrested For Urinating In Hotel Ice Machine...Woman Wearing “Won’t Be Caught” T-Shirt Being Sought In $1500 Theft From Beauty Store...Woman Texted “Driving Drunk Woo” Just Before Fatal Crash...91-Year-Old Woman Gets $122 Ticket For Rocking Chair Noise...Man ‘Likes’ His Own Facebook Wanted Post Gets Arrested ...An 18-Year-Old Baltimore Rioter Faces A Higher Bail Than The Cop Accused Of Murdering Freddie Gray...Why I Killed Jeffery Dahmer.

Quick Hits Part Deux: James Shields has a mediocre 3.72 ERA despite moving to the National League and pitcher-friendly PETCO Park, where he’s somehow allowed five homers over 18.1 innings. But if you look deeper, he’s clearly a buy-low candidate if possible, as Shields currently sports an MLB-high 15.9 SwStr% (next best is Clayton Kershaw at 13.9%). Moreover, he posted a 3.21 ERA in the AL last year with a 14.5 K-BB%. He currently sports a 24.8 K-BB%. It sure looks like Shields is going to be a monster over the next five months...Chris Young has six homers over 63 ABs and for those who play DFS, he’s really cheap and is hitting .458/.567/1.042 against southpaws this season...There probably has been a ball hit shorter that resulted in the batter scoring, but I’ve personally never seen one more so than Logan Schafer’s on Saturday...Dan Haren somehow has a 2.70 ERA and 0.87 WHIP despite serving up five homers (and eight earned runs) over 16.0 innings verses left-handed batters. A 96.6 LOB% (second in MLB to Carlos Martinez, who has a 100 LOB%) and an MLB-low .152 hit rate have surely helped...The Royals have an MLB-low 1.04 bulllpen ERA, which has produced nine saves. The Padres have the second-worst bullpen ERA (5.05), which has resulted in eight saves.

Longread of the Week: “Have You Ever Thought About Killing Someone?”

Quick Hits Part Tres: Nathan Eovaldi has averaged the highest mph with his fastball (96.1) this season, but that’s resulted in a modest 6.99 K/9 rate, a .380 BABIP and just a 7.2 SwStr%. Despite the high velocity, Eovaldi’s heater has been one of the 15 least valuable fastballs in baseball so far, just barely ranking ahead of Jered Weaver’s, which has averaged a mere 83.1 mph...Dee Gordon has a .494 BABIP, which is more than Chase Utley’s .091 mark...Mike Moustakas is somehow batting .337 despite 30.3 percent of his balls in play being pop ups...Shin-Soo Choo was one of the bigger busts last season during his first year in Texas, but his disappointing campaign could easily be written off by injuries both to his elbow and ankle. So a bounce back could’ve reasonably been expected by the 32-year-old but instead, he’s hitting .141/.273/.297. Choo currently owns the lowest BB% (9.7) and highest K% (25.0) of his career to go along with a 55 wRC+ (his career mark is 129)...This attempted throw by the catcher was clearly on purpose, right?...Pick up Aaron Sanchez now, and you very well may have Toronto’s leader in saves from here on out...There’s also no reason why John Axford shouldn’t be owned in all leagues, with Adam Ottavino’s health looking bleak.

Follow Dalton Del Don on Twitter.