Who was that fresh-faced wonder two-hitting the White Sox for the Yankees Monday?
Why, none other than the formerly bearded enigma, Lance Lynn. He looked good, in more ways than one.
It wasn't just the 7 1/3 innings and nine strikeouts, both season highs. It was the fact he issued one walk after issuing none over 4 1/3 innings in his Yankees debut Wednesday. Look at his game log, and you'll see that walks have been his only real issue of late. In his final 12 starts with the Twins, he had a respectable 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings and 0.8 home runs per nine, both comparable to his glory days with the Cardinals. It's just the 4.6 walks per nine that made everyone squeamish.
And yet he still had a 3.74 ERA during that stretch. He may not have been good, but he wasn't entirely unusable in Fantasy.
Still, has anything actually changed for him? Have the Yankees tweaked something to get more out of him? Was it just a matter of him facing the White Sox, which he did in two starts earlier this season, issuing one walk between them?
Even if the latter theory is the only one you buy, there's good news moving forward.
The Yankees have a favorable schedule to close out the month of August. Assuming they stick to a five-man rotation, Lynn will face the Rangers, followed by the Rays, followed by the Marlins, followed by the White Sox, followed by the Tigers (as Jonah Keri aptly points out in the video above). Granted, Lynn had favorable matchups during his time in the AL Central, too, so his success will partly depend on him keeping his walks down. But there's clearly the potential for him to be useful moving forward.
A remnant from the weekend who didn't make the cut in Monday's Waiver Wire, Trevor Cahill has delivered excellent numbers in back-to-back starts and encouraging numbers in three of his past four. And actually, he has five straight with double-digit swinging strikes since returning from a month-long absence for a strained Achilles, which, combined with his elite ground-ball rate, gives him an uncommonly high ceiling for a pitcher who's owned in just 51 percent of leagues.
Another save Monday gives Pedro Strop eight on the season and six since the All-Star break, so if there was any doubt whether manager Joe Maddon would stick with just one reliever during closer Brandon Morrow's absence, it's gone now. Morrow is probably still weeks away, too, so Strop's 37 percent ownership rate could stand to double.
Robinson Cano is in the final days of his 80-game PED suspension, eligible to return Aug. 14, and fittingly, he began a rehab assignment for Triple-A Tacoma on Monday. In other words, now's your last chance to add him if you've been passing him over on waivers all season. He's expected to play every day, albeit mostly at first base, and while the power was lacking before his suspension, the plate discipline and hard-contact rate suggest it wasn't an age thing.
Eloy Jimenez has been doing stupid things at Triple-A, batting .376 with eight homers in 29 games, and now actual members of the front office are hinting of a promotion, namely player development director Chris Getz telling WSCR-AM 670 that the 21-year-old is "really close."
"He has done nothing but perform," Getz said. "This guy's been able to drive the ball to all fields. He's been able to set up pitchers ... He's got a pretty good arm. We just want to make sure he's as ready as possible. We're getting really close."
We're nearing the point when Rhys Hoskins got called up last year, and if that point comes for Jimenez, you'll be glad you stashed him ahead of time.
If you don't understand why the Mets awarded the starting second base job to this 26-year-old nobody after dealing Asdrubal Cabrera to the Phillies, maybe you're getting the gist now. Jeff McNeil's three hits Monday make him 8 for 12 with two doubles and a home run in his past three games, with plate discipline resembling the kind he demonstrated while batting .342 with 19 homers and a 1.028 OPS between two minor-league stops this year. His nine percent ownership could rise quickly.
