One of this season's most pleasant surprises has finally disappointed fantasy owners, as A's closer Sean Doolittle has been placed on the DL with an intercostal strain. There's no specific timetable on Doolittle's return at the moment, but the team's website notes that this injury can take "as few as two to three weeks of recovery time and up to several months," while the San Francisco Chronicle says that Doolittle "could miss three to six weeks." With the regular season ending in five weeks, fantasy owners need to move on from Doolittle.
Where to move? Most reports suggest Luke Gregerson and/or Ryan Cook as the A's top closing options, but beat writer Susan Slusser of the Chronicle says "it's a very strong bet that Eric O'Flaherty will be the first choice to close games, which would allow the A's to keep (Gregerson) and (Cook) in their set-up roles." While most fantasy owners zig with Gregerson and Cook, let's zag with Slusser's hunch and pick up the ground-balling O'Flaherty, who's owned in 0.1 percent of FOXSports.com leagues, and has a 2.79 career ERA in 332 2/3 innings.
Sunday's studs & duds
Stud: Mets 1B Lucas Duda hit his 25th and 26th homers of the season against the Dodgers, and added five RBI. Duda trails only Jose Abreu, Anthony Rizzo and Edwin Encarnacion in home runs among first basemen.
Stud: OF Arismendy Alcantara had two hits, a homer, a run scored and a steal in the Cubs' win over the Orioles.
Stud: Indians SP Trevor Bauer threw six scoreless innings while striking out nine en route to a win over the Astros.
Dud: A's SP Scott Kazmir got pummeled by the Angels, allowing seven runs and 12 baserunners in three-plus innings. Oof.
News & notes
The A's have a couple more injuries to report, with C John Jaso on the seven-day concussion DL, and 3B Josh Donaldson (knee) is day to day. The A's acquired C Geovany Soto from the Rangers to help fill Jaso's void, but he's probably not even worth an AL-only pickup.
Red Sox SS Xander Bogaerts is on the seven-day concussion DL, while DH David Ortiz is day to day after leaving Sunday's game with a bruised foot. BROCK HOLT! played shortstop in Bogaerts' place on Sunday.
The Red Sox also signed Cuban OF Rusney Castillo over the weekend, and he could make his big-league debut in September. Here's a FanGraphs article on what we might expect from Castillo next season.
A nagging ankle injury might be hindering Miguel Cabrera's power, according to the Detroit Free Press.
In case you missed it, Orioles 3B Manny Machado will have knee surgery Wednesday, and is done for the season. Chris Davis has played third base in Machado's absence; he's up to 12 games at the position this season, and once he gets to 20, he'll qualify there for 2015 in most fantasy leagues.
Look for Cubs SS Starlin Castro to return from the bereavement list on Tuesday.
Mets 2B Daniel Murphy (calf) is day to day, and the team's website reports that we won't know Murphy's status for Tuesday "until he wakes up that morning."
Rockies OF Michael Cuddyer is back on the DL with a hamstring injury.
Look for White Sox OF Adam Eaton to come off the DL as soon as Tuesday.
Nationals 2B Asdrubal Cabrera might miss a game or two with tightness in his right side.
Kyle Lohse comes off the DL to start tonight for the Brewers in San Diego.
Streaming starters
Marcus Stroman got knocked around on Friday, Kyle Hendricks left early on Saturday due to a rain delay, and Mike Fiers was pretty good again on Sunday, so we're 79-52 for the season. Today's pick is Mariners' lefty Roenis Elias (10 percent owned) against the decimated Rangers, while Tuesday's selection is Jose Quintana (29.6 percent owned) versus the Indians. Why don't people like Quintana more?
See you back here tomorrow morning.
