Midweek Musings: Quality Players Are Available
- John Gerbino
- Jun 13, 2025
- 6 min read
There were a few names I wanted to get out there, especially the two Houston pitchers that I think can be streamed for some great value this week. I've finally given up on Kody Clemens and his fantastic statcast as he just gets too many off-days and can't find any sort of rhythmn, and replaced him with DJ. I'm also still a strong advocate for Tyler Freeman who continues to impress both on film and on the statcast.
Christian Moore
The #1 prospect for the Angels has officially arrived, and of course I'm here for it. Fortunately enough, the promotion came in the early hours of night for my east-coast league-mates, and I managed to snag him for a grand total of $0 faab. The perks of being a west-coaster who reads baseball tidbits all night!
Moore doesn't have a world-beating prospectsavant like Joe Melton, but Joe Melton is also struggling to hit over .200 in the early days of his promotion to the Astros. Sometimes guys rise to the occasion and overperform their AAA metrics (like Heriberto below), and sometimes they underperform due to the pressure of it all. But we can only look at what we can look at, and there's definitely some good here! Right off the bat we see some really awesome power indicators: 82nd percentile Max EV 86th percentile 90th% EV 76th percentile Barrel%
Moore swings fast through the zone, and although he whiffs at a 33rd percentile rate, he absolutely launches the ball when he does manage to square up (check out the HRs below). He's also swinging at a solid 60th percentile rate at pitches in the zone and chasing at a respectable 54th percentile rate, so there's some solid vision at the plate here. Although we'd love to see the whiff and zone contact numbers be a bit better, that improvement could come as he adjusts to the MLB and continues to improve. But even if he manages to maintain a 33rd percentile whiff rate at the MLB level, that's still fantastic with this kind of power and launch angle. The kid is only 22, good stuff is on the way.
Moore is a dead-red hitter, with a .542 xSLG against the 4-seam and a .590 xSLG against the sinker. Also of note is his ridiculous .859 .xba against curveballs.
Moore covers the majority of the plate well, but really destroys inside and middle pitches. If pitchers want to beat him, they're going to have to hit two tough spots on the outside corners.
Heriberto Hernandez
This guy has come out of absolutely nowhere and become the Marlins' best hitter over the past two weeks. He's hitting the ball with authority and his .417 BA and 1.065 OPS reflect that. Standing 6'0, 195 lbs (I think he's bigger than this), Hernandez also posseses 83rd percentile sprint speed and is just a really solid athlete. His power seems effortless, and if you watch the HR below, you'll see him smack the shit out of a high and outside fastball deep to center. It's a HR that most MLB players aren't capable of launching and makes Heriberto an extremely intruiging add. Even looking at his AAA metrics, this power just isn't surprising - but what is surprising is the current xBA of .396, which is honestly unsustainable. Keep an eye on this guy whose launch angle, bat speed, and hard-hit rates are currently elite.
Brandon Walter
It seems like a year ago we were hyped on Ryan Gusto in that Astros rotation (though his most recent outing was his best), but now it's mid-June and the Astros have two fresh arms that are much more intriguing. One of those arms is Brandon Walter, who currently rocks a 1.64 ERA and 0.91 WHIP through two starts.
Walter has excellent extension and absolutely elite BB and GB rates, both clocking in around the 99th percentile. Much like Colton Gordon, who is listed below, Walter is a pitcher who relies entirely on horizontal movement on his primary fastball with his Woo-esque 26 degree arm angle. The cutter has tremendous ride and hitters struggle to barrel up, and even though they don't whiff often, he gets them to chase on a nice sweeper below the zone in 2 strike counts. Walter has three plus pitches: the cutter, sweeper, and changeup (which has a crazy .071 xBA right now), and they all tunnel well and move in extremely different ways. Walter is both a safe and deceptive pitcher - you don't have to worry about the longball with this guy, and he's a bet to pitch deep into games due to the groundball rate. His fangraph projections also reflect just how good he's looked through his first two starts, with all three grading well above the major league average. It's been confirmed Walter will remain the rotation, and if he continues to pitch this well, will most likely force Gusto to the bullpen.
Colton Gordon
I included Gordon on my most recent waiver wire post and he proceeded to have a nice outing: 5 IP, 1.80 ERA, 5 Ks, 0 BBs. It's actually strange how similar he is to Walter with the 27 degree arm angle, reliance on ride, extension, and movement, and the uncanny ability to just not walk batters. Where they differ, though, is Gordon doesn't induce groundballs, but rather weak flyouts. I'll include what I wrote about him previously.
To be honest, I'm not quite sure what I was doing when Colton Gordon was called up, and as both a baseball enthusiast and UCF alumni, I feel a bit of shame for being late to the party. Houston's #14 prospect has now made five starts and his underlying metrics are looking strong enough for him to cement a spot in the rotation. His expected ERA comes in at a healthy 3.13 in spite of a .260 xBA, and the main contributor to this is his stellar 99th percentile BB %. Simply put, this guy has absolutely elite-tier location - even Fangraphs has him at a 110 Location +. Although his 4-seam averages 91, his 83rd percentile extension bumps that perceived velocity into the 94 mph range. The 4-seam also has less vertical break vs the average, and some really solid horizontal break with 3.3 inches gloveside. Add on to this his 27 degree arm angle, exactly the same as Bryan Woo's (see below for visualization), and you have a pitcher that's throwing a 4-seam with tons of ride. Don't let the velocity deceive you - this is a very good fastball and should have pitch shape enthusiasts sweating. His secondary pitch, the sweeper, currently has a .239 xBA against, yet hitters are currently hitting .345 against it, which means there's more to unlock here for Gordon when the math works itself out.
DJ LeMahieu
The machine has seemingly received a new firmware update after several years of injury-plagued mediocrity, and this is great news for fantasy owners as there's tons of counting stat potential for DJ in that Yankees lineup. DJ's bat-to-ball skills have seemingly returned to his late 2010s form as he currently boasts 80th percentile + squared-up, chase, whiff, and BB percentiles. The more surprising part of the statcast is the 70th percentile hard-hit % and average exit velocity - not only is he making contact often, but the ball is actually being hit with a fair bit of authority. If somehow he can manage to remain healthy, there's actually a ton of upside here. I added him last night, so let's hope.
José Soriano
It feels weird to finally have José Soriano back on the blog after advocating for him so heavily in my preseason sleeper list. Soriano hasn't lived up to expecatations in the early part of the season, with a bloated WHIP, K/BB, and ERA (before his most recent outing) forcing me to drop him last month despite the quality starts here and there. His fangraphs projections also suggest his stuff just hasn't been good as last year, even though his location+ and pitching+ remain strong. But that all changed in his most recent outing, where he pitched a 7 inning, 12k gem of a quality start that turned some heads in the fantasy community. He was able to locate the knuckle-curve, something he hasn't been able to do consistently, and thus hitters could no longer sit on his 97 mph sinker (which was up to 99 mph on the night). But man...when he can locate the breaking ball....this guy is good. His whiff rate is suddenly up to the 59th percentile, a better mark than his 2025 35th percentile, and we can't help but wonder whether this guy may finally be figuring out as we get deeper into the season.
Nick Loftin
I continue to remain high on Loftin as he continues to produce in his limited playing time, and I really do believe he'll earn a closer to everyday role in the very near future. Not much has changed from my analysis a few weeks ago, so feel free to read that if you're interested. Keep an eye on him, as I believe he is an easy add if more reps come to fruition.
Promotions to be ready for:
Dylan Beavers
Michael McGreevey
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