Happy 4th to my American brethren and sistetheren (totally a word)! And what better way to rally the family than with a pocket full of fireworks, hot dogs…and peach emojis?
If only there were something that could capture all that is the fantastical and fiery fervor of Cal Raleigh.
Is there a series of tiny smartphone pictures that encapsulates the beauty of Independence Day AND said booty in a small, bang-on, totally sensible fashion? Let’s see…
That last one is wishful thinking on my part. As Captain Cal sends yet another pair of baseballs into orbit, I’m left sighing and wishing that the biggest and bestest of dumpers can somehow eke out New York’s giant cave troll, (and his .365 batting average), to take home the AL-MVP award.
So, last night, Cal Raleigh went 2-for-4, 2 R, 3 RBIs, and guess what his two hits were. Oh, it was no big deal. He just hit his 34th and 35th home runs to set a new career-high AND tie Ken Griffey Jr. for most homers before the All-Star break by a Mariner! And for those of you not paying attention, it’s only July 5th. Please, Roto-Gods, hear my prayer. Let this big bootied boomstick launch 60+ home runs in 2025.
Maybe it’s far too early for stargazing and forecasting end-of-season awards. Before we get to that (or at least until we get to the All-Star break),
Here’s what else I saw in fantasy baseball last night…
Lucas Giolito – 7.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 7 Ks. Gio is now 5-1 and methinks he’s gonna move up that Top 100 Starting Pitchers list this Monday for the third straight week.
Trevor Story – 4-for-5, 3 R, 4 RBI, HR (13th) AND SB (14th). The Neverending Story with a slam and legs has him flying higher than Falkor the LuckDragon (who looks just like my old dog – no, seriously. Look up there at the avatar.)
Jarren Duran – 2-for-5, R, 3 RBI. Not as impressive as Story’s afternoon, but production nonetheless. His audition for a trade deadline move continues to go smoothly.
Abraham Toro – 2-for-5, R, RBI, batting .294! Speaking of auditioning for a trade deadline move. I imagine Toro bull-rushes his way out of Beantown at the deadline, too. The only concern is he might land in a bench role for a contender.
Mike Soroka – 4 IP, 7 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks. Era at 5.40. Oh, man. I know Soroka is Canadian, but that doesn’t mean he has to lay a rotten egg on July 4th. In the nation’s capital, too! He’s now officially the second most hated guy in Washington this week, after Bruce Springsteen.
Bryan Woo – 6 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks, and (unsurprising to the regular Top 100 SP readers), my unfaltering love. Ok, maybe that’s a bit much but come on. His ERA is at 2.77, he moved into a tie for 2nd place on this list last night, and the 0.96 WHIP is enough to give Ric Flair an aneurysm. I’m just glad that one of my two “Draft him everywhere you can!” calls came through this season (*pouring one out for Jared Jones fans*.)
I always forget that Mark Langston wasn’t a California Angels lifer.
Bailey Falter – 5.2 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks. First Falkor and now Falter? That sounds much worse than it is. Kind of like his stat-line there. It’s not his fault that Spencer Horwitz tried to catch a ball at first base with his glove closed on the back end of Julio Rodriguez’s grounder to second base. Either way, Bailey isn’t on the Top 100 Starting Pitchers list for a reason. Falter? I hardly even know her!
Andrew Abbott – 3.1 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 2 Ks and the no-decision. Cincy yanked him after 66 pitches, his shortest outing of the year and the first time he allowed more than one earned run in his last 5 GS.
Spencer Steer – 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBIs. Batting .256. Lots of two-hit nights from the Reds lineup last night, (Friedl, Elly, Stephenson), but no homers or steals to report, so I figured Steer stoking the fires of his hot streak was worth a mention. He’s hitless in just two of his last 14 starts.
Emilio Pagan – 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, and his 19th save. ERA at 2.92, WHIP at 0.87. That’s good for 2nd place among NL closers (behind Robert Suarez’s 24).
Jesus Luzardo – 2 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 4 Ks. All this bouncing back and forth between life and death is making fantasy managers feel like we’ve got Easter on a continuous loop.
Nick Castellanos – 1-for-5, R, 3 RBIs, and his 11th HR. Nick tried to play the gyro role, but the Phillies lost 9-6.
Miles Mikolas – 6 IP, 8 ER, 10 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks, and 6 (!) HR allowed. Yep. Apparently, someone forgot to tell Miles that pitchers for the home run derby don’t need to report for another 9 days.
Colin Rea – 6.2 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks. It would’ve been a nice cruise to the I-Victory coast for Rea last night, but he put up a strong outing anyway.
Pete Crow-Armstrong – 4-for-4, 4 R, 2 RBIs, 2 HR (22nd, 23rd). Two more bombs and we’ve got a 25/25 season from PCA. Oh, make that a 25/25 half-season with a shot at 50/50?! Oh My!
Michael Busch – 4-for-4, 3 R, 5 RBIs, 3 HR (15th, 16th, 17th). A solid .309 mark in June has boosted his season average to .288. Special thanks to BDon for trading him to me in Perts on May 15th!
Marcus Stroman – 5 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks and a no-decision. Guess what his ERA is. Come on. He’s been a lot better since he came back, right? You know you’ve thought about adding him off the waiver wire. It’s 7.45.
Jasson Dominguez – 2-for-4, 2 R, 3 RBIs, 2 HR (7th, 8th), and an SB (14th). The Martian with a slam and legs! And antennae that collect counting stats? Ok, maybe not, but I’m glad I had him active in Perts last night.
Aaron Judge – 2-for-4, R, RBI, HR (32nd). Batting .365. I don’t dislike Judge, I just really like Cal Raleigh and don’t want to have to read New York stories all winter if Judge wins the MVP award again. Judge did go 6-for-10 in the four-game series in Toronto last week, though. He could’ve used some help from an old teammate in that series.
Juan Soto – 3-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, HR (21st). Batting .266. Do you think Juan Soto was happy to welcome his former Bronx brethren to his new house with this one?
Juan Soto CLEARS the wall ?
Brett Baty – 2-for-4, R, RBI, HR (9th). Batting .224. Jeff McNeil hit his 9th home run in this one, too. And he’s hitting .256. But I wanted to write up Baty instead. So…oops!
Zack Littell – 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks. ERA at 3.50, WHIP at 1.06. He’s like a tinier version of Zach Eflin. Or just a small version. Ok. Time to get the thesaurus out.
Edwin Uceta – 0.2 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 2 Ks. He wasted a solid outing from Littell and robbed us SVHD managers of another Hold.
Chris Paddack – 5 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks. He didn’t pitch poorly; it was just a low-scoring game, and he ended up with a no-decision.
Harrison Bader -2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBIs, 2 HR (8th, 9th), and he struck out twice. Deuces are wild! And his walk-off home run was even wilder.
Eric Lauer – 6 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks. Even though Chad Green (3-2) was the eventual winner, Lauer showed once again why he’s been such a pleasant surprise in Toronto. He’s appeared in 13 games in 2025 (7 GS) and has allowed more than two earned runs just twice.
George Springer – 2-for-4, R. Batting .284. He didn’t do much else last night, but it’s worth pointing out that Spring is white-hot with 10 hits in his last 16 ABs. That includes two 2 home run games against the Yankees. Pick him up off the wire if he’s there! Now!
Jo Adell – 2-for-4, R, 3 RBIs, HR (19th). Batting.254. My boy, Min-Su! Whoops. I mean, it’s my boy, Jo Adell. Sorry. We just finished binge-watching Squid Game. As a side note, my 15 HR .260 bold prediction from last year looks a lot less silly now, doesn’t it?
Kumar Rocker – 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks. Kumar fell two outs short of his 3rd quality start in this one. The good news is that after his first game back from injury was a disaster (June 4), Rocker has started four games and allowed fewer than 3 ER in each one.
Marcus Semien – 1-for-4, 2 RBIs. Batting .238. This was all the offense the Rangers could muster against…Randy Vasquez? Are you serious?
Randy Vasquez – 6 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 1 K and the no-decision. Insert the “Uh, Ok,” meme here.
Manny Machado – 2-for-3, R, RBI, HR (14th). Batting .292. I guess the whispers about him being over the hill were Mach-ado about nothing.
Reese Olson – 4.1 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks. It was his first start in nearly two months, so we can forgive the early hook, and it was encouraging to see him almost get to 90 pitches (89).
Tyler Holton – 2.2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 4 Ks, and his 4th win. The Tigers put together a perfect bullpen behind Olson last night. Holton was great and bridged to…
Will Vest – 1.1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K, and his 14th Save. The old 4-out save is usually reserved for the Vest closers. I mean, the best closers. Somewhere, Joel Zumaya is smiling and rubbing his sore elbow after an expert run of “Through the Fire and Flames” on Guitar Hero.
Wenceel Perez – 1-for-4, R, RBI, solo HR (7th). Batting .269. “I’m sick of hearing that ‘Kiss from a Rose’ song.” That’s Wenceel is on the radio too much, and you realize you should find a new ’90s soft-rock station.
Slade Cecconi – 6 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and the loss (3-4). He’s not as much of a hard-luck loser as Mitch Keller was in June, but two solo homers were all the Tigers needed with their arms on point last night.
Jose Ramirez – 2-for-4, R, RBI, HR (14th). Scroll up and see what I said about Machado, copy that, remove the Shakespeare pun, then paste it here.
Sandy Alcantara – 6 IP, 5 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks. ERA at (you don’t want to know). Alcantara avoided being saddled with his 9th loss, and the walks and zero homers allowed are encouraging, but I was hoping for much better than this when I streamed him in three leagues. And for you masochists out there, saying the 1.44 WHIP is better than the 7.01 ERA is like saying a kick to the groin is better than one to the teeth.
Otto Lopez – 1-for-4, R, 3 RBIs, HR (9th). Batting .253. Connor Norby also hit his 5th HR in a 6-5 loss to the Brewers and…
Aaron Ashby – 2.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, his first win since 2024, and yet another example of that magician of a Milwaukee pitching coach. Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson (remember him?), Chad Patrick and…
Quinn Priester – 4.2 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks. ERA at 3.59, WHIP at 1.27. Three out of four ain’t bad? So Priester’s start last night was a far cry from the 11 K, 7-inning, one-hit shutout from last week. We’ll give him a pass on the road against a surging Miami team and hope for a bounce-back vs WSH next week.
Caleb Durbin – 2-for-3, 2 R, RBI, 2 SB (7th, 8th). Two Hit Caleb! Aka a healthy dose of THC from the Durbin Poison!
Trevor Megill – 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, and his 19th save to tie Pagan for 2nd in the NL. You think Reds fans miss Alexis Diaz as much as the Brewers fans miss Devin Williams? (No comment about Josh Hader!)
Charlie Morton – 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks in his return to Atlanta, and just how many souls does Charlie Morton have that he’s already sold to the devil? This was his 5th win, and he out-dueled some schmoe with a 3-7 record. Ugh.
Jordan Westburg – 3-for-4, R, RBI, HR (8th). Batting .243. Quickly! Someone cover him in bubble wrap again until tomorrow’s game!
Cedric Mullins – 1-for-3, R, 2 RBI, HR (13th). Both Mullins and Westburg homered off the Braves starter last night. “I’m glad I’m not starting him anywhere,” (said none of those fantasy managers anywhere).
Spencer Strider – 6 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks. And now you know who the schmoe with the 3-7 record is. Strider didn’t even have that bad of a night. He IS lucky this isn’t a ’90s WWE storyline when losing to Charlie Morton at home meant Strider would have to retire.
Drake Baldwin – 1-for-3, R, 2 RBIs, HR (10th). Batting .274. Say, Drake, I hear you like ‘em long. As in 405 feet for the longest homer in the ATL/BAL game yesterday. Boom.
Adrian Houser – 8 IP, 0 ER, (2 R), 4 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks. ERA at 1.60, WHIP at 1.11. And that’s back-to-back shutouts with 8 hits and 11 strikeouts in his last 15 innings. OK, OK, OK! You made your point! I’ll add you to the Top 100 list!
Grant Taylor – 1 IP, 0 ER, H, BB, 2 Ks, and his 3rd save. The running joke is that any pitcher who secures the CWS closer gig will give you 6-8 saves the rest of the way, but Taylor has 2 in his last 3 appearances (he got pumped at LAD). I have him rostered in a couple of mixed leagues where I needed the SAGNOF.
Edgar Quero – 1-for-3, R, RBI, and his first career home run. Listing three White Sox players here is silly enough, but Quero’s first career homer coming after 170 ABs is pretty silly stuff, too. If you’re set for power in a two-catcher league and need the average boost, though, Quero is worth checking out.
Mickey Moniak – 2-for-4, SB (4th). You know it’s sad when you look at the Rockies’ box score and think, “Well, at least Moniak had two hits. Oh, and a steal too! But that’s it?” Yep. That’s it.
Lance McCullers – 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 4 Ks, and his 2nd win. I certainly didn’t have Lance romancing the Dodgers in LA on my bingo card. And the best (or worst) part is that he didn’t need to be nearly this good to get the win because he had this guy (sitting on four phone books) driving the offense…
Jose Altuve – 3-for-3, 4 R, 5 RBI, 2 HR (14th, 15th), and one (alleged) buzzer in an 18-1 beatdown at LAD. Holy smokes. It was bang-bang night again for the Astros vs the Dodgers. Oh yeah?! Well, Altuve was caught stealing, so take that! (That’s an angry fan who still complains about the Astros’ trash can drumline.)
Cam Smith – 2-for-6, 2 R, RBI. Bathing .292. There was a time back in April when I was concerned that I may have made a stupid move in an AL-only auction by chasing Smith and landing him with a $20 bid. Now? Well, I still feel stupid, but that’s mostly because I smashed my finger while hammering in second base at one of my kids’ baseball games last week.
Christian Walker – 4-for-5, 3 R, 4 RBIs, HR (11th). He’s scorching hot with 10 hits in his last 19 ABs (4 games). Maybe “scorching” isn’t the best descriptor to use when you’re boosting your average all the way up … to a ‘robust’ .231.
Victor Caratini – 3-for-5, 2 R, 4 RBIs, HR (8th), and his second grand slam in three games. Caratini had three of Houston’s 20 hits and pushed his average to .254 last night.
Ben Casparius – 3 IP, 6 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks. I’m thankful that the only place I roster Casparius is in RazzSlam, so the computer will reserve him for me this week. If you started him, there’s a tiny bit of solace that at least you didn’t have Noah Davis active too (1.1 IP, 10 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 2 Ks). Hopefully.
Will Smith – 2-for-2, R, RBI, HR (12th) and literally the only Dodger to score off the Astros last night.
Kris Bubic – 7 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and his 7th win. Bubic is one of those guys who is quickly approaching his career high in innings. He needs 27 innings to match his career high, and we’re just sitting back and enjoying the ride. Could his arm disintegrate into dust during his next start? Sure. But I’d be running him out in any situation in any park until he gives us a reason not to.
Bobby Witt Jr. – 3-for-5, 2 R, RBI. What? Three singles and no steals? That bothers me almost as much as when I heard the KC announcers refer to him as “Junior” in Seattle on Thursday night. That’s like calling out Rudolph’s name at the North Pole and saying you were referring to the guy selling sausages at the bratwurst stand outside of Santa’s workshop.
Vinnie Pasquantino – 3-for-5, 2 R, 6 RBIs, 2 HR (13, 14). Batting .271. Way to take it to them, Mangiacakes, Vinnie Pasketti! Just in case you were wondering, his 6 RBIs were a career-high.
Eduardo Rodriguez – 4.1 IP, 8 ER, 12 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, 3 HR allowed, and WHY do I let you rope me back in and add you to the Top 100 when I know this is going to happen sooner rather than later? (But we know it’ll happen later, too.)
Eugenio Suarez – 1-for-2, R, 2 RBIs, HR (his millionth). Batting .252. So maybe it wasn’t his millionth homer, but it sure feels like it was. He hit his 28th last night after he said, “(He) would like to stay in Arizona and not be traded. Unless it’s to play 3B for the first-place Blue Jays because I love them so much and would be an excellent right-handed bat to add to the middle of their lineup.” (Ok, so I might have made up everything after that first sentence.)
Justin Verlander – 3 IP, 6 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks. ERA at 4.84, WHIP at 1.44, and record at 0-6. Another hiccup of a stream for MarmosDad last night. Speaking of hiccup, I wrote this while swatting mosquitoes at the Drive-In last night while we watched “How To Train Your Dragon”. Well, I watched it while the Marmo-lets were fast asleep in the truck bed. Come to think of it, Grandpa Verlander should’ve gone to bed early last night, too.
Ben Wisely – 1-for-1 and his 1st homer as he pinch hit for Adames. If only there were an adverb to describe the thought process behind deciding to replace Willy Adames late in the game for a defensive upgrade. Smartly? Intelligently? Nope. That’s not it. Where’s that thesaurus?
JP Sears – 6 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 H as JP Roebucked his way to his 7th win. The ERA is nasty (4.76), but the WHIP isn’t as bad (1.27). The A’s gave him such a cushion, though, that he didn’t need to be this good anyway.
Lawrence Butler – 2-for-4, 3 R, RBI. Batting .255. Every A’s starter recorded at least one hit in this one, not including Zack Gelof. Sorry, buddy.
Nick Kurtz – 1-for-5, R, 2 RBIs, HR (13th). Batting .240. Kurtz hits ‘em a long way, but the tale of the tape from last night didn’t go to him. It went to his teammate.
Denzel Clarke – 2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, and a 470-foot home run (3). Clarke’s 470-footer easily beat out Manny Machado’s 440 and Jo Adell’s 431 for the biggest bomb of the evening and sent the A’s home with a Giant 11-2 victory. Side note: How fun is this A’s team?
Denzel Clarke absolutely CRUSHED this ball ?
And speaking of big booms, let’s end off with some final July 4th fireworks. Have a great weekend!
End your #4thOfJuly with the loudest fireworks of the night ?
Happy 4th weekend, everyone! And be sure to come out to see me on Monday when the newest Top 100 Starting Pitchers list drops, all polished up with revisions and rankings changes!
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