Will Middlebrooks Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections
Will Middlebrooks scratched Saturday; Drew Robinson replaces and will bat ninth
Middlebrooks has officially been scratched from the Texas Rangers lineup for tonight's game against the Oakland Athletics as a response to Oakland's starting pitching change to Raul Alcantara from the southpaw, Sean Manaea. He'll be replaced in the lineup by Drew Robinson, who will take over the third base duties and bat ninth. Since Robinson is slotting directly into Middlebrooks' former spot in the batting order, the remainder of the Athletics previously confirmed lineup does remain unchanged.
Dexter Fowler leads the majors with a 328 wRC+ (three HRs) over the last week
Dexter Fowler (328 wRC+, 42.1 Hard%, three HRs) is one of two batters above a .300 wRC+ over the last week and the only one with more than 10 PAs. He faces Ivan Nova in Pittsburgh, a more generous park to LHBs. Nova has allowed 24 HRs over his last 18 starts. Pedro Alvarez (312 wRC+, 50 Hard%, one HR) must want to stick in the majors. He's smoked the ball in 10 PAs since returning. He does have a 124 wRC+ vs RHP since last year and faces Alex Cobb (RHBs 37.2 Hard%) in the very friendly confines of Baltimore (if he's in the lineup). Josh Donaldson (299 wRC+, 42.9 Hard%, five HRs) and Matt Olson (214 wRC+, 38.5 Hard%, five HRs) tie for the league lead in HRs over the last week. Donaldson travels to the Bronx to against HR prone Masahiro Tanaka (32 HRs allowed), while Olson remains at home against Nick Martinez (LHBs .357 wOBA) and is an interesting pivot off of Paul Goldschmidt for the contrarian player at the same price. Will Middlebrooks (19 wRC+, 83.3 Hard%) is the only batter to make hard contact on more than two-thirds of batted balls over the last week, but with only 10 PAs, four of which he's struck out in. He has hit five of six batted balls hard though.