Batter’s Box: To Everything (Turn, Trea, Turn) There Is A Cycle

Trea Turner went 4-6, 4 R, HR, 7 RBI to complete the cycle Tuesday night for Washington versus Colorado. The game was a 15-12 thriller, as the Rockies would score the final five runs in a comeback bid that fell just short. But speaking of comeback KIDS, Turner was just five games in to his return from the DL, and he showed why he is one of the best hitters in baseball. The homer was his first of the year, and the bases-loaded triple was an especially nice touch. Ryan Zimmerman and Bryce Harper also doubled, while Daniel Murphy joined the young cycle-getter in tripling.

Let’s take a look at what else happened hitting-wise around the league:

Jean Segura (2B/SS, SEA) – 3-6, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI. Well, that stint of DL time laid up with an injured hamstring apparently didn’t cause him to accumulate any rust. It was his first game action since April 10, and his scintillating return has made Segura’s BA bump to .342. Meanwhile, Taylor Motter slotted in at third with Segura back and went 1-5 with an RBI and a steal of his own, quelling the doubt that he’d be given more chances to produce now that his understudy role at shortstop has expired.

Mitch Haniger (OF, SEA) – 2-2, R. Don’t get too excited that his BA is now a wonderful .338: he strained an oblique and had to leave Tuesday’s game and very well might be headed to the DL. Danny Valencia came in to both pinch-run and finish out the game in RF for Haniger, but he’s hot garbage and is not worth any consideration as a handcuff while Haniger is down and out if you like winning at fantasy baseball. Officially, he’s still day-to-day. If you have a DL or bench spot to spare, pick up Haniger and wait it out because the dividends when he returns could be huge.

Nelson Cruz (OF/DH, SEA) – 3-4, R, HR, 3 RBI. Just doing ridiculous things to increase his season BA to .297. The one non-hit of his box score was a sacrifice fly to plate Segura, so that’s even more ridiculous.

Evan Gattis (C/DH, HOU) – 1-3, 2 R, K. Houston often slots Gattis at DH, and he’s batting .297. He has batted from Spots 5, 6, 7 and 8 in the order recently, with eight RBI and seven runs scored on the year. We projected him to end up being the ninth most valuable catcher-eligible player in the league back in February, and that prediction feels a touch more secure now that we know more about how flexibly Houston is managing his playing time. He has just 37 at-bats, but this game is a microcosm of what to expect from the Astros. Carlos Beltran started in LF and Brian McCann is manning the backstop most days, and they’re both hitting decently. But Gattis is the utility bat that they find a way to get in the order despite the positional jam.

Yulieski Gurriel (1B/3B, HOU) – 2-4, R. Gurriel follows Alex Bregman in the Houston lineup and managed a double off of Josh Tomlin for his fifth such XBH of the year. He’s batting .333 on the year.

Josh Reddick (OF, HOU) – 2-5, 3 RBI. As leadoff for Houston, Reddick allowed Gattis to benefit from both his hit and getting HBP: Reddick’s work plated the DH twice en route to a win over Cleveland Tuesday. He is a stellar outfielder and last night’s work at the dish was valuable, but his bat is extremely hot-and-cold when it comes to fantasy relevance. Currently a .293 hitter, monitor what he does the rest of the series with the Indians. Ultimately, now that he’s had a clutch night, I would not be surprised if he proceeds to go 0-8 the rest of the series.

Ian Kinsler (2B, DET) – 4-5, 4 R, 2 RBI. On a night when Detroit would amass a whopping 24 hits, the recently somewhat-dormant Kinsler experienced a renaissance and accounted for four of them himself. One was a double, his second of the year, and he now owns a .262 BA as the Tigers’ leadoff hitter.

Ty Collins (OF, DET) – 3-5, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI, BB. This is a killer stat line, but don’t purchase the fool’s gold any time soon: Collins is streaky and had gone 0-17 in his previous five games.

Justin Upton (OF, DET) – 2-4, R, HR, 3 RBI, BB, K. Finally starting to hit like a champion after a slow start to the year, Upton has now hit safely in nine of his last 10 games with three multi-hit efforts along that way. If you’re fortunate enough to play alongside idiots in the 6% of Yahoo leagues or the 8% of ESPN leagues that don’t have Upton owned, rectify that situation.

James McCann (C, DET) – 2-5, 2 R, HR, 4 RBI, BB. I’m torn on McCann. On the one hand, he hit his fifth homer of the year as part of the Detroit run-splosion that was a a 19-9 victory. On the other, he’s batting .178 and I don’t know if one truly offsets the other. I’ve already tabbed him in past articles as a phenomenal streaming option for those missing Gary Sanchez, and I can understand being fed up with Jonathan Lucroy’s inconsistency thus far and wanting a guy to use as a dart-throw for some help. Hopefully the average for McCann comes up a bit with nights like Tuesday to make it worth your while to own him.

Steven Souza, Jr. (OF, TB) – 3-5, K. What elbow bruise? There was speculation Souza could be day-to-day with a mild injury sustained Monday, but he battled through it and accounted for half of Tampa Bay’s hits in the process. A .349 average and awesome production says “own, own, own.”

Mark Trumbo (OF/DH, BAL) – 0-4, 2 K. The slide continues. Trumbo is a wretched .203 hitter right now. Following Adam Jones, Manny Machado and Chris Davis in the lineup, you’d hope he can eventually string some rhythm together to pile some stats up but it looks like the wait between now and then could be mildly excruciating.

Billy Hamilton (OF, CIN) – 0-5, 4 K. Gross. That golden sombrero does not look good on you, sir. And not even a walk and a steal for my trouble? Yikes. These are the type of nights that make us question Hamilton’s fantasy value as anything more than a one-category guy when all is said and done.

Adam Duvall (OF, CIN) – 1-4, R, HR, RBI. Jack Number Six for Duvall on the year. BA could use help at .224, but the 15 RBI likely have fantasy owners not really caring about that.

Zack Cozart (SS, CIN) – 2-2. One of the hits was his seventh double of 2017, and he has a .407 average through 59 at-bats. Yeah, dude.

Keon Broxton (OF, MIL) – 1-2, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 SB. Broxton now has five steals on the season and hit his third double as well. BA is still a middling .172, but he’s working on the production side of things despite the chances to do so being less regular than they should be.

Hernan Perez (2B/3B/OF, MIL) – 3-3, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI, BB. Perez is an intriguing case. Multi-position eligibility and he has 11 RBI on the year after last night’s outing, actually playing at shortstop in relief of the slumping Orlando Arcia. Besides the homer, he tripled as well. That’s back-to-back games with homers, too. But the downside is that all of his production has essentially come in three games. Do we believe Milwaukee will find a way to feature him in the lineup more frequently? It’s at least worth an add of Perez to your watchlist.

Travis Shaw (3B, MIL) – 3-5, K. A ho-hum night production-wise, but his average is at .266. Shaw is especially valuable right now in points leagues because of his propensity to rack up hits of all kinds, regardless of whether he comes around to score.

Eric Thames (1B, MIL) – 1-3, R, HR, 2 RBI, BB, CS. Good grief, this man is fun to watch. He sent his eleventh ball out of the park so far this year. The .371 average means that he is by no means a compromise as a hitter that needs to be unequivocally 100% owned, since the power has melded with consistency seamlessly thus far.

Joey Gallo (3B, TEX) – 1-3, R HR, RBI, K. Don’t look now, but Gallo has seven HRs and 16 RBI on the year. He’s a sneaky add for some desired value if your normal studs aren’t producing.

Rougned Odor (2B, TEX) – 0-3, 2 K. Speak of the devil. BA sinking at .183, and I don’t know what’s wrong with Odor.

Miguel Sano (3B, MIN) – 3-4, R, HR, 2 RBI. He sent a two-out single into center to plate Byron Buxton (who got his second steal of the year). The bomb was Sano’s fifth so far: the homers have been pretty evenly spaced out throughout the month, so don’t worry that the power is a fleeting thing that’s going to drop off after a flukish run.

Jorge Polanco (SS, MIN) – 1-4, R, RBI, BB. The RBI came on a double to score Joe Mauer, and Polanco suddenly has an appealing .273 next to his name.

Mike Moustakas (3B, KCR) – 2-5, 2 R, HR, RBI, K. He’s hitting .296 and has seven homers to go along with 11 RBI. The other hit was a double. Meanwhile, DH Brandon Moss hit a homer—just his third—while striking out twice and that still increased his average to .135. Moose, Salvador Perez and Lorenzo Cain are the Royals to own right now.

Eric Hosmer (1B, KCR) – 1-4, K. Like I said, a .195 is probably killing you right now and you need to be deploying better options at the position while Hoz’s fantasy value is in an atrophying state.

Todd Frazier (1B/3B/DH, CHW) – 2-3, 3 R, 3 RBI, BB. HASHTAG OH MY TODD, did we need this stat line. Frazier hit two doubles on the evening and managed one of his RBI on a sac fly to boot. No home run to make you feel warm and fuzzy, but you can at least see the blanketing comfort of a power-laden showing for Frazier on the horizon with nights like Tuesday.

Jose Abreu (1B, CHW) – 2-5, R, K. Okay, now just pepper in some home runs and make owners feel better about where they drafted you, Jose. The .233 BA is on the uptick, much to the delight of many.

Avisail Garcia (OF, CHW) – 3-5, 2 R, RBI. This guy just won’t stop getting hits and scoring. He’s at .380.

Jedd Gyorko (1B/2B/3B/SS, STL) – 3-5, RBI. With his fourth double too. Gyorko is one of the most productive Cardinal hitters right now, and the position eligibility makes life easier. He has a .340 average right now, and they’re riding his hot bat with three straight starts at cleanup.

Jose Bautista (OF, TOR) – 2-6, R, RBI, 2 K. It was just Bautista’s second multi-hit game of the year. I feel like we’re slowly crawling out of the pit that was rock bottom for him. Only one homer to date, though.

Kevin Pillar (OF, TOR) – 1-5, 2 R, RBI, BB, K. The batting average is .296, and Pillar’s RBI came when he hit a triple that allowed Chris Coghlan to acrobatically somersault over Yadier Molina to score in one of the season’s most entertaining highlights thus far.

DJ Lemahieu (2B, COL) – 3-4, 2 R, RBI. BA is finally up to .295, but only one homer.

Carlos Gonzalez (OF, COL) – 1-3, R, HR, 2 RBI. He finally hit Home Run No. 2 as well as a sac fly, and the batting average is up to .219. Hang tight while he finds his groove.

Yangervis Solarte (2B/3B, SDP) – 3-4, RBI. Instant average boost for you with .291.

Chris Owings (SS/OF, ARI) – 2-4, 3 R, RBI, BB, 2 K, CS. He had a triple and got even more aggressive on the base path beyond scoring three times when he got caught by Austin Hedges. Average is at .329.