A few fresh faces are ready to make an impact on the fantasy scene.
Twins center fielder Byron Buxton hit ninth in his debut Sunday, recording his first major league hit in a 1-for-4 outing. Buxton was considered to be the top prospect in all of baseball this season, which is saying something given the impact we've seen guys like Kris Bryant, Joey Gallo, Noah Syndegaard and a few others make already.
If nothing else, Buxton can help your team right away in the stolen bases category. In 2013 in the minors, Buxton stole an incredible 55 bases. This year, in just 59 games, he swiped 20 bags. He's a major threat on the basepaths, and his ability to create contact and get on base at a high clip should give him plenty of opportunities.
Buxton is owned in just 30.8 percent of FOX Sports leagues. Go get him while you still can.
In other news...
Shortstop Francisco Lindor is coming up to the bigs as well. Lindor also offers a bit of speed, but he's projected to help the Indians solidify their defense more than anything else. Based on his production in the minors, you can safely hold off unless you're in an AL-only league.
Houston Astros SS Carlos Correa is a good example of what can happen if you don't act quickly with hot prospects. Correa came up, hit two homers in his first four games, and now he's owned in nearly 66 percent of FOX Sports leagues. Don't wait for the production.
While we're talking about young studs, Joey Gallo blasted another homer to the moon on Sunday. You can expect the average to fall way down from the .306 clip he's at right now, but it's been awfully hard to ignore Gallo's four homers in his first 11 games.
The first to 10 wins this season is... Pirates ace Gerrit Cole. The 24-year-old also has a major league leading 1.71 ERA. If you had to hand out the Cy Young award today, it would belong to Mr. Cole.
Of course, that doesn't mean Cole will have an easy time running away with the award, so long as guys like Max Scherzer are around. After two rather pedestrian starts, Scherzer came firing back in a big way, striking out 16 batters and allowing just one hit in a dominant win against the Brewers on Sunday. Scherzer had a perfect game going until the 7th inning.
Let's not sleep on the gems the D-Backs staff threw up this weekend. Both Chase Anderson and Allen Webster took no-hitters into the 6th inning against the Giants, and Rubby De La Rosa pitched eight shutout innings as well. The bats by the bay are ice cold right now.
Astros SP Lance McCullers had a no-hitter through five...but the Astros were already up 10-0 on the Mariners. With McCullers sitting at 90 pitches, the Astros ended his day early. He's now 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA and .89 WHIP, and is still available in a third of FOX Sports leagues.
Justin Verlander touched 97 MPH on his fastball, and generally looked pretty strong in his return. Tigers manager Brad Ausmus thinks Verlander will be back up to his usual 110-120 pitches per start fairly soon, so all appears well with the former Cy Young winner.
The run is over for Red Sox rookie Eduardo Rodriguez. After allowing just 1 ER in 20.2 IP over his first three starts, Rodriguez blew up and allowed 9 ER on Sunday against one of the hottest lineups in baseball in the Toronto Blue Jays. Now let's see how he responds in his next start.
Not a bad weekend for Russell Martin. After hitting the go-ahead homer in the 11th inning on Saturday, Martin stayed hot and raised his season batting average 10 points to .285 on Sunday during the shellacking of Rodriguez.
Bryce Harper should be just day-to-day with a knee injury, Martin Prado will need to have his shoulder evaluated but it doesn't appear serious, and Mark Trumbo was scratched Sunday with back spasms and should be day-to-day as well.
John Halpin will be back with more Quick Hits Monday morning. Enjoy all the games (Game 5, CHC-CIN, Thrones).
