Baltimore Orioles

Fantasy Baseball Headlines: Adam Jones starts, Trumbo still hot, Oritz still clutch

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:41 a.m. ET

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Adam Jones – OF20 in fantasy baseball ADP – returned to the Orioles lineup on Thursday. It was his first start in eight days as he was limited with a rib injury. He finished 0-4 with two strikeouts. He’s only provided two hits with no HR thus far this season.

Jones has been a part of 10 trades in public fantasy baseball leagues on FOXSports.com since the season started.

Mark Trumbo was a triple shy of the cycle earlier this week. What’s more impressive is Trumbo’s .368 BA – 7-19 – with two strikes on him this season. He's part of a four-way tie for first with the seven hits. His $4,100 price tag is still a bargain on DraftKings, too.

Manny Machado leads MLB in hits with 16 and third in HR (3) among third basemen.

Kevin Gausman (shoulder) will make a minor league rehab start tonight. He owns a 7.90 K/9 rate for his MLB career.

The top three starters in the rotation – Ubaldo Jimenez, Chris Tillman and Yovani Gallardo – have now allowed 18 runs in 34 1/3 innings pitched. Despite the high ERA, Jimenez with the top xFIP of the group at 2.62 after two starts.

Boston Red Sox

The Pablo Sandoval soap opera took some weird turns the last few days. His trainer came out and said the pudgy third baseman needs a babysitter around him so he doesn’t overeat. Today, a report that the Giants banned room service for Sandoval while on the road. While, other reports claim Sandoval either wants to play or be traded. He’s on the 15-day DL currently (shoulder).

Source: #RedSox’s Sandoval plans to see Dr. James Andrews for second opinion on his left shoulder.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) April 15, 2016

Catcher Christian Vazquez has been called-up by the team. He hit .240 in 55 games for the Red Sox last season. He’s around for his defense. The move has created some fog around Blake Swihart’s future. It could be a position change or coming off the bench for the 24-year-old backstop. Update: he's been sent down to Triple-A Pawtucket.

David Ortiz is 7-18 with three homers with two strikes on him this season. Best in all of MLB.

Red Sox starting pitchers own the second-worst ERA in all of baseball at 6.86. Only the Rockies starts are worse. Opposing hitters are boasting a 25.2 percent line drive rate against the rotation – fourth-highest in MLB. So, the group isn’t fooling anybody.

Toronto Blue Jays

Crazy early-season stat: 11 of the 13 Blue Jays hitters this season own a strikeout rate north of 21 percent.

Marcus Stroman owns the fourth-highest groundball rate among starting pitchers in baseball. Of those four starters, he owns the lowest flyball rate – 19.7 percent. He ranks eighth in baseball in that category.

Jose Bautista is patient at the plate. He’s walked at a 28.6 percent clip this season. Joey Votto led the league in walk-rate in 2015 at 20.6 percent.

New York Yankees

Without Starlin Castro and Brian McCann, who played Thursday with a jacked up toe, the Yankees team batting average would rank among MLB’s worst. About half the team are hitting below .250.

For those counting on Alex Rodriguez in fantasy baseball leagues, the .120 batting average probably has most frustrated. Remember, A-Rod only hit .232 in April a season ago. He did, however, post a .369 OBP, while his current on-base click is .267.

Granted, it’s only two starts, but Nathan Eovaldi’s K/9 is 11.57 and while his ERA is nearing 7.00, his xFIP 3.19, which indicates some bad luck in the first two starts. The way he becomes relevant? Keep. The. Ball. Down. His groundball vs. flyball rate is not good.

Tampa Bay Rays

If you want to sell Chris Archer low, I’ll buy that stock right now. He fell to 0-3 on the season after allowing two earned runs on seven hits and three walks, while striking out six Indians. His ERA sits at 5.87, but critics note that his velocity returned to expected levels in his third start and the 2.94 xFIP makes me believe better days are ahead.

Just a friendly reminder that it can take more pitches to record a strikeout than an out and ties in nicely to the fact Archer has averaged more than 100 pitches per start despite none of the three starts lasting more than 5 1/3 innings.

None of the Rays’ starter have recorded a win this season.

Fun Fact: Chris Archer was traded by the Indians, the team who drafted him, to the Chicago Cubs as part of a deal for Mark DeRosa back in 2008.