Collette Calls: Super Stanton

In the meantime, here are some other players or situations that got my attention over the last week.

Brandon Woodruff, MIL: He debuted Friday with a win against Tampa Bay, scattering nine baserunners and stranding them all in 6.1 innings and followed that with two runs allowed against Minnesota on Wednesday in 5.2 innings. He was supposed to debut last month, but strained a hamstring during warmups and went to the disabled list. His Triple-A numbers were not very impressive, but when you pitch in Colorado Springs, that is going to happen. BrewCrewBall had a nice writeup on Woodruff's stuff and here is a nice view of Woodruff's stuff from behind home plate:

He should remain in the rotation the rest of the way as the club continues to piece together a rotation while waiting for their bats to wake up. They're 9-16 since the break as the offense has cooled off in recent weeks.

Alex Bregman, HOU: The injuries to the Houston lineup has led to some changes in the Houston lineup, and Bregman has been red hot since being asked to take on more, including leading off at times while George Springer was out. Over the past month, the kid is slashing .356/.443/.702 with 23 extra base hits (15 doubles) and is 6 of 7 in stolen base attempts while scoring 28 runs. It is always great when players can gradually improve, and that is what Bregman was doing early on before he took his performance to another level these past few weeks:

Over those 104 plate appearances, he is walking more than he is striking out and essentially, finally, doing what we thought he could do when many of us were overpaying for him in drafts back in February and March. His swing looks really good at the plate and he is using all parts of the field. After watching him play four games in the series against Tampa Bay, I'm already envisioning myself paying $20-plus for him in AL Only leagues next season.

Joe Musgrove, HOU: Speaking of AL-Only plays, I need to bring up Musgrove. Why, you ask? Yes, he was terrible as a starting pitcher … but have you noticed what he is doing as a reliever?

Now that Musgrove is throwing harder, he is really challenging batters within the strikezone, working the sides as well as up in the zone, using his cutter in the same tunnel as the fastball, and then using a slurvy slider that cuts across the plate to keep both righties and lefties honest. All of this is helping his fastball generate whiffs more frequently too:

Musgrove now becomes someone worth using in deep AL leagues as he could end up with holds and some of the vulture wins.

Blake Snell/Brent Honeywell, TB: After attempting, and failing, to win his first game in 15 outings in 2017 the other night, Tampa Bay sent Blake Snell back down to Durham for a second time this season. For all of the talent the kid has, his ability to execute his pitches varies from inning to inning and sometimes batter to batter. He falls behind in too many counts, and only works to one side of the plate:

This is Snell tonight (& most nights): pitches away/away. Imagine having 93-96 & not being willing to use it inside to keep batters honest pic.twitter.com/oaVLxtkekp

— Jason Collette (@jasoncollette) August 4, 2017

Here is how Snell's numbers looked before his first demotion and since he was recalled:

The team called up Jose Alverado to help out in the bullpen because the pen has had to do some heavy lifting lately. The Rays needed a fifth starter Tuesday, but that just so happened to be when Jake Odorizzi came back off the disabled list. If you are holding that Brent Honeywell card, it does not look like you'll get to play it for two seasons.

First, he is not even on the 40-man roster. He has to be added to it even to come up in September, and there are a few easy places to put him on the roster. Second, the team does not like to see workloads jump more than 20 percent year over year, and the 22-year-old worked 130 innings between Double-A, Triple-A and the Arizona Fall League last year. A 20 percent increase over that amount would be 153, and he's at 119 innings and has been carefully watched most of the summer. He has thrown more than 100 pitches just once in his last 10 outings and has never exceeded six innings in a start while in Triple-A. Over his last six outings, Honeywell has a 1.13 ERA, 45 strikeouts and seven walks in 32 innings. Even if he were to come up, it would likely be done with a restrictor plate.

Tim Beckham, BAL: I have scratched my head so much trying to figure out why the Rays traded Beckham that I have removed my remaining hair. Yes, Matt Duffy may come back at some point this season. Yes, Willy Adames could be coming up in September, and yes they may just really like Adeiny Hechevarria's glove. Still, they deal at 27-year-old with three more years of team control for a pitcher in rookie ball. Beckham certainly has not pouted about the deal as he has been tearing the cover off the ball as an Oriole. This deal is tremendous for his fantasy potential because Camden Yards is one of the best parks for right-handed home runs while Tropicana Field suppresses such hitters. Beckham likely will lose stolen bases under the conservative approach of Buck Showalter, but he could be a 25-home run hitter with a full year in Baltimore. He already has 15 in 2017 in 352 at-bats.

Giancarlo Stanton, MIA: While some are worried Aaron Judge is falling victim to the pseudoscience of post-HR Derby slumps, Stanton is reminding us why it is junk science. Over his last 30 games, he is slashing .305/.430/.867 with 17 homers, eight doubles and nearly a one-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio. While the batting average has been up and down, Stanton has been rather consistent with homers, hitting seven in each of the first three months of the season before the 12 spot he posted in July. He has five in August, which should count for more because two were moonshots. He already has eclipsed his career high of 37 homers, which he has done twice, but not since 2014. He has improved his strikeout rate from 30 percent in each of the last two seasons to 24 percent this season. He was a top-10 pick after that 2014 season and disappointed in both 2015 and 2016. If he continues at his current pace, he is going to finish the season with 50-plus homers and vault himself back into the first round in 2018 drafts.

Michael Wacha: Wacha was a hot name for 2016 drafts after the way he closed out his 2015 season, but injuries held him back in 2016. So far, so good health-wise with Wacha in 2017, but that is not the story for him. The big story is the surge in strikeout rate:

Wacha's strikeout rate went from 21 to 20 to 19 percent the last three seasons but has jumped up to 24 percent this season. He is averaging 95.5 with his fastball, which is nearly 2 mph more than last year but close to where he was in 2015, and his pitch mixture has remained rather constant as well. He is throwing more first pitch strikes than he ever has in his career and his swinging-strike rate is back to its 2014 level as well. All in all, nothing else truly stands out for Wacha outside of the strikeout rate going up because it lacks the typical news of a new pitch and is just him getting back to some old velocity that had temporarily left him.