Fantasy Baseball Today: Rich Hill continues dominant stretch, Alek Manoah among prospects to put on your radar

USATSI

Happy Friday! It's especially so for Giants fans out there as the team soared to 12 games over .500 thanks to more awesome heroics from 34-year old Brandon Crawford. Where did this come from!? Crawford had three more hits on Thursday, including his 11th home run of the season to go along with six RBI. Now I wouldn't go and drop Gleyber Torres or Dansby Swanson for him, but would I bench both for Crawford while he's hot? Sure!

While we're on the topics of undervalued veterans, let's give a shout out to Yuli Gurriel, who is playing the best ball of his career. He's up to a .333 batting average for the season with a .966 OPS. Gurriel is walking more than ever before with top-notch quality of contact. Feel free to try and sell high if somebody needs a first baseman, but if you don't get fair value in return, I have no problem sitting back and reaping the benefits.

Of course, you can subscribe to make sure you get the latest episodes of Fantasy Baseball Today right when they drop on Apple and Spotify.

Hill is an ageless wonder (when healthy)

When the Rays signed SP Rich Hill this offseason, he was mostly an afterthought only to come up at the end of Fantasy drafts after a forgettable 2020 season. It wasn't just 2020 working against Hill -- there wasn't much optimism surrounding him due to his age and landing spot. Hill has been doubted at various times throughout his career, so this was no different, and he has once again responded with a dominant stretch of outings.

On Thursday, Hill threw six innings of one-run ball. He allowed just two hits but walked four batters. The control isn't perfect and he only had four strikeouts in six innings, but he faced another lineup that simply couldn't score runs against him. Over his last five starts, Hill has a ridiculous 0.99 ERA and yet he's still only 55% rostered.

He's a must-add SP for us now and it's still surprising to see his percentage rostered so low despite his torrid stretch. Chris has moved him up to SP75 but admitted that feels a little low.

More news and notes

Mets SP Jacob deGrom struck out eight over three scoreless innings in his rehab start for Low-A St. Lucie on Thursday. He finished with 41 pitches.
Nationals SP Stephen Strasburg is returning to start Friday against the Orioles. He got up to 75 pitches in his last rehab outing.
Dodgers OF Cody Bellinger and 2B Zach McKinstry will both be in the lineup for Triple-A Oklahoma City Friday. Bellinger could be back by next week if everything checks out.
Diamondbacks 2B/OF Ketel Marte was finally back in the starting lineup (finally).
Twins SP Kenta Maeda will start Saturday against Cleveland.
Twins SP Randy Dobnak will start Friday.
Twins SS Jorge Polanco was removed Thursday with ankle soreness.
There is still no timetable for Blue Jays OF George Springer and his quad injury.
A's SP Jesus Luzardo threw 30 pitches in a bullpen session Thursday.
Twins DH Nelson Cruz was hit by a pitch in the first game of the doubleheader and didn't play in the second one because of it.
Phillies SP Vince Velasquez was scratched from his start Thursday due to numbness in his right index finger.
Twins RP Tyler Duffey was suspended three games for throwing at Yermin Mercedes.
OF Josh Reddick's contract was selected by the Diamondbacks. He was in the lineup and batting fifth on Thursday.
While this isn't really news in shallow leagues, the Yankees placed OF Ryan LaMarre on the IL Thursday. Prospect Estevan Florial could get the call. He's a name to watch in deeper category leagues.

Prospect updates

If you want to dive a bit deeper into the prospects you need to know about now, Scott's in-depth prospects report breaks down the five prospects on the verge of being called up that you should stash and five on the periphery.

Blue Jays SS Austin Martin is currently out of the lineup for Double-A New Hampshire with a hand injury.
Blue Jays SP Nate Pearson was cleared to return and start Friday at Triple-A after dealing with shoulder inflammation.
Blue Jays SP Alek Manoah has now made three starts and he has allowed just one run combined. He also has a sparkling 27:3 strikeout to walk ratio over 18 innings pitched. He's lined up in the same spot of the rotation as Ross Stripling. We don't want to read too much into that, but ...
Twins OF Alex Kirilloff has homered in two games as he rehabs that wrist injury at Triple-A.
Twins OF Trevor Larnach hit his first career home run and it came off a lefty. He's now batting .250 with a .789 OPS. He's only 18% rostered, but he could get sent back down when Kirilloff comes up.
Rays 2B/SS Vidal Brujan added another home run and steal on Wednesday -- he's now up to six homers and four bags -- that's the kind of power/speed profile we're talking about here. My guess is that he'll arrive in the majors before SS Wander Franco.
Marlins OF Jesus Sanchez continues to destroy the baseball -- he's now up to seven home runs with a .509 batting average and 1.573 OPS. We had to do a double take to make sure those numbers were correct, and they are.
Let's also show a little love to Braves OF Drew Waters, who is batting over .300 at Triple-A with three home runs and five steals. The Braves are currently running Guillermo Heredia out in CF -- how long can that last?