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Fantasy Baseball: What we should know from Tuesday's MLB action

Dalton Del Don
Fantasy analyst
·3 min read
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Fantasy Baseball analyst Dalton Del Don runs down the top happenings from Tuesday's MLB action.

Need-to-know Fantasy Notes

• Aaron Judge entered Tuesday leading MLB in Barrel percentage and expected home runs this season and cranked a walk-off three-run homer. The game-winner came off Jordan Romano, who’s having a terrific season but saw his velocity way down during the blown save. It’s a situation to monitor.

• Ronald Acuña Jr. stole his fifth base during his 10th game back. So much for not running as much coming off ACL surgery. Acuña looks like the No. 1 fantasy player moving forward.

• Kyle Wright saw his ERA jump more than 1.25 points during a rough start Tuesday, which came against a Boston offense that entered with a bottom-five wRC+. Still, bad starts happen to every pitcher, and Wright’s season FIP remains 2.69 even after the beating. He entered ranked top-10 in K-BB% and with the fourth-highest spin rate on fastballs this season (just behind Joe Musgrove, Gerrit Cole and Dylan Cease), so Wright’s future still looks extremely bright.

• Julio Rodríguez is on pace to steal 52 bases despite a .317 OBP as a 21-year-old rookie. His fantasy upside is through the roof.

• Carlos Carrasco was strong again Tuesday and has now allowed two runs or fewer in all but one start this season. Now healthy and playing in a premier pitcher’s park for a first-place Mets team, Carrasco is sporting a 3.00 FIP and looks like one of the best draft-day steals.

New York Mets starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco is proving his fantasy value
Carlos Carrasco is living up to his billing as a fantasy bounce-back candidate. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

• Vidal Bruján was called up by the Rays and needs to be added in deeper fantasy leagues. His stay could be short-lived (depending in part on Manuel Margot’s status), but Bruján had 12 homers with 44 SBs in just 103 games last season in Triple-A, where he’s already attempted a whopping 11 steals over 16 games this year (while posting a 137 wRC+). Bruján is 2B/OF eligible and available in 95% of Yahoo leagues … Meanwhile, Josh Lowe is looking droppable, as he’s struggled badly since getting sent back to the minors.

• With the White Sox producing save opportunities seemingly every night, it was Kendall Graveman’s turn to close Tuesday, as Liam Hendriks was held out having pitched in six of the past eight days. Hendriks’ WHIP has doubled compared to last season, and his Statcast page reveals a lot of hard contact. Meanwhile, Graveman ranks top-10 among all pitchers in expected ERA and xwOBA.

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• The 2022 inconsistent baseball continues to kill home runs, as the rate of games finishing without a homer has doubled when compared to the last five seasons.

• While Jesús Luzardo suffered his worst start of the season Tuesday night, Madison Bumgarner bounced back after his bizarre ejection last game.

• Justin Verlander lost a no-hitter in the eighth inning during yet another dominant performance. The 39-year-old has been a bit fortunate to have a 1.55 ERA with a 7.97 K/9 this season, but Verlander has also faced a difficult schedule while returning from Tommy John surgery. The wins should continue to come.

• Harrison Bader has a .697 OPS and an average exit velocity in the bottom 3% of the league, but he’s already racked up seven steals and added an inside-the-park home run Tuesday night.

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