I wanted so badly to make “Three Up” this week a list of former Orioles, as Christian Walker, Mike Yastrzemski and Josh Hader have all been great recently for their respective teams. I’ll spare you all (and myself) the pain.
Here are this week’s fantasy baseball risers and fallers.
Three Up:
Atlanta Braves OF Michael Harris II — It was a slow start to the season for the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, as Harris saw his OPS dip as low as .490 just two weeks ago. That mark is now .709, an almost incomprehensible improvement in such a short period. He has done so thanks to hits in 10 of 12 games, including games of four and five hits in the past week. Harris has swatted four home runs and swiped two bags during that stretch, driving in 12 runs. The young center fielder has quickly gone from a massive disappointment to a set-it-and-forget-it fantasy piece as long as he maintains his current pace.
Philadelphia Phillies RHP Zack Wheeler — After a 3.2-inning, seven-earned-run clunker in D.C. at the beginning of the month, Wheeler has turned things back around. He has allowed just one earned run in his last three starts, a stretch spanning 19.1 innings, and has recorded 19 strikeouts to just four walks. Even before that bad outing against the Nationals, Wheeler held the Braves scoreless for eight innings and punched out 12 Atlanta batters. He’s solidified himself as one of the top starting pitchers in fantasy baseball.
San Diego Padres LHP Blake Snell — If it feels like we’ve seen this movie before, it’s because we have. This year’s sequel, however, features Snell’s stretch of dominance beginning much earlier in the season. He has allowed two earned runs total in the last calendar month. Sure, he has walked 13 batters in those 30 innings, but he has allowed just 14 hits and struck out a whopping 45 batters. Snell has recorded 12 strikeouts in each of his last two starts, most recently in a six-inning scoreless effort against the daunting Tampa Bay Rays. Snell’s resurgence could be huge for the Padres and fantasy owners who stuck with him despite the early-season struggles.
Three Down:
Minnesota Twins OF Byron Buxton — This one is simple. Buxton doesn’t have a hit since returning from the injured list a week ago. Combine that with a 1-for-21 stretch before hitting the shelf and you’re looking at a 1-for-37 slump dating back to May 24. He has 19 strikeouts and just two walks in that span, bringing his season slash line down to .202/.306/.409. Since being activated, he has struck out in nearly 60 percent of his plate appearances. The question with Buxton has never been talent-related, but injury-related. Something clearly isn’t right at the moment.
Milwaukee Brewers 1B Rowdy Tellez — The slugging first baseman needs to do just that to maintain fantasy relevance, yet Tellez hasn’t gone deep since May 22. He has just two extra-base hits in total since then. His strikeouts are up. His walks and just about everything else are down. This seems like a team-wide issue for the Brewers at the moment, but Tellez isn’t helping, as he has driven in only five runs this month and scored just once, way back on the first day of June.
St. Louis Cardinals RHP Miles Mikolas — Mikolas had an excellent May, but June has not been as kind to the righty. In 17 innings pitched this month, he has allowed 25 hits and 13 runs, all earned. This stems from his recent inability to put hitters away, as he has recorded just five strikeouts in three starts. Mikolas, who signed a lucrative three-year contract (two-year extension) before the season, has had a very up-and-down year and is currently mired in one of those unfortunate valleys.