Greetings, friends, and welcome to Week 19 of the Fantasy Baseball Quick Grades series. The grind is real right now. We’re well into the dog days of Summer, and the NFL has already started. This is when leagues are won. Stay focused and finish strong. I’ll be here with you until the end, and so will Quick Grades. We can do this!
I went over how the grades for this series are calculated in Week 1, and I’ll link to that breakdown every week rather than filling this space with a lengthy explanation every time. If you’re interested in knowing my process or just want to talk baseball, feel free to reach out on Twitter @mikeMaher. I reply to Tweets, and my DMs are open. Here’s a link to the Week 1 piece with the full Quick Grades breakdown:
Week 1 Quick Grades (2021 Fantasy Baseball)
We had one of the larger groups of 90.0+ grades last week, but we only have four this week: Starling Marte, Cedric Mullins II, Joey Votto, and Bryce Harper. Dansby Swanson, Jesse Winker, AJ Pollock, and Rowdy Tellez all came close. Remember when there was some concern that Marte wouldn’t run as much after the trade to Oakland? He has already stolen five bases in seven games with the A’s. Crisis averted. With the Phillies surging, Harper playing out of his mind, and Jacob deGrom and Fernando Tatis Jr. both injured again, Harper is a legitimate MVP candidate in the National League. And remember our old friend Cedric Mullins? He got off to that hot start, had a quiet May, and then had an even hotter June. Well, he looks to be hot again. Through 17 games to start the second half, he’s batting .357 with two home runs and five stolen bases.
Now, let’s get to the rest of the Week 19 grades and notes.
Week 19 Hitter Grades
Note: This table is three pages (see the button on the top right) and is sortable and searchable, so feel free to look around!
Team Streams
- The Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, and Toronto Blue Jays all play seven games this week. Of those teams, the Reds have the best Matchups grade.
- The top Matchups grades this week go to the Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, the aforementioned Reds, the Oakland Athletics, and the Milwaukee Brewers.
Fades of the Week
- The Houston Astros are the only team to only play five games this week, though their matchups are decent.
- The worst Matchups grades this week go to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals, and Los Angeles Angels. The fact that Harper was able to top a 90.0 grade with a 12.50 Matchups score is impressive. With how the formula is weighted, that isn't easy to do.
Notes
- Mookie Betts left Friday's game against the Angels with right hip discomfort, and that's obviously an injury we'll have to watch throughout the rest of the weekend and potentially even into Monday.
- Christian Yelich didn't qualify for Quick Grades but sounds like he could return as soon as this weekend. Now the question becomes, does it matter? What. A. Disappointing. Season.
- If you have followed me at all for the past year or so or spent any time in the FantasyPros Discord, you know how much I like Ryan Mountcastle. He left Friday's game to be evaluated for a concussion, and this is another situation worth monitoring over the weekend. Mounty is batting .308 with five home runs through 18 games to start the second half.
- Joey Gallo has been battling through a rough stretch, but he gets to play his home games in a little league ballpark now. Unfortunately, the Yankees play six road games this week. No more 314 popup home runs for Gallo until next week.
- I feel like I have been getting on DJ LeMahieu a bunch this season, and perhaps I'm too hard on him sometimes. That's probably because of how bad that contract is going to turn out to be. But that doesn't matter in redraft leagues. What does matter is his 63.90 grade this week. he is batting .243 with a .283 wOBA to start the second half and hasn't homered since June 26.
- J.D. Martinez has been bad. Like real bad. And he has been trending in this direction for a while now. His batting average has decreased every month since the beginning of the season:
- Mar/Apr: .351 AVG, 9 HR
- May: .306 AVG, 3 HR
- June: .253 AVG, 4 HR
- July: .244 AVG, 4 HR
- Aug: .190 AVG, 1 HR
Week 19 Pitcher Grades
Below, you'll see a grid of probable starters, their matchups, and their grades. The grade is on a scale of 0-100, and here's what those numbers mean.
These grades assume you are in 10 leagues of varying size and format, with a good mix of shallow, deeper, scoring, and roster/lineup sizes. The score for all of these players corresponds to how many leagues I would start a pitcher in if I had him in every league. So, a pitcher with a score of 100 means I would start him in all 10 leagues. A pitcher with a score of 50 means I would start him in five leagues. Zero, zero leagues. Got it? Great.
Note: The starters below are grouped alphabetically by team and schedule, and the table is two pages to keep the length manageable (you can click to see the second page on the top right).
Notes
- Jack Flaherty is on track to return this week, but should you start him? That really depends on your league and your situation. If you can afford to wait for one start and see how he looks, I certainly prefer waiting. But if you're like me and are desperate for some quality innings, you might have to run him out there and watch through your fingers.
- Vladimir Gutierrez has thrown five quality starts in his last seven trips to the mound. Those other two starts, though, were about as non-quality as it gets: 12 earned runs over 8 1/3 innings combined. The strikeout potential is limited, but I'll be watching Gutierrez pitch on Saturday. I have him in a couple of deeper leagues and have been trying to pick my spots (mostly successfully). He is available in nearly 90% of leagues, and I like him as a streaming option against the Braves this week.
- Cal Quantrill is a former first-round pick and was included in the Mike Clevinger trade. He was buried in the bullpen for a while in Cleveland but has now made 13 starts for the Cleveland Indians/Guardians this season. The results have been, well, fantastic. Through 91 2/3 innings, Quantrill has a 3.14 ERA. He only has 71 strikeouts, but you'll take that if the other numbers continue to be strong. He has thrown four straight quality starts with five quality starts in his last six trips to the mound.
- It's that time again, folks. It's time for a Blake Snell road start. Snell has a 7.36 ERA on the road and a 2.81 ERA at home, and even that home number is slightly inflated by the seven earned runs he allowed in his last start. He hasn't been very good, or at least very consistent this season, but fantasy managers who drafted him or traded for him this year pretty much have to start him. And he gets the Diamondbacks this week. Start him but don't watch.
- We talked about Frankie Montas in this space last week. He's now up to five consecutive quality starts with at least seven strikeouts in all five. In three of those starts, he has 10 strikeouts. Our boy is on an absolute heater right now, friends.
That's it for this week. Again, if you have any questions, feedback, or requests, hit me up on Twitter!
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Mike Maher is an editor and featured writer at FantasyPros and BettingPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive, follow him on Twitter @MikeMaher, and visit his Philadelphia Eagles blog, The Birds Blitz.