NL East Fantasy News: Mets' deGrom to skip a start

By foxsports
Published

The scheduling quirkiness normalizes this week, with the Braves, Phillies and Nationals playing seven games apiece, and the Mets and Marlins getting only Thursday off.

Atlanta Braves

The Braves allowed 31 runs while being swept by the Cardinals over the weekend. We knew they'd be bad, right?

The Braves have called up speedy OF Mallex Smith to replace Ender Inciarte, who is on the DL with a hamstring injury. The Braves' website suggests that Smith will lead off, making him worth a look in all formats as long as he doesn't require a big investment. Smith stole 57 bases in the minors last season, and 88 the year before - he's got big-time speed. However, unless he tears it up over the next couple of weeks, he'll probably head back to the minors.

SS Erick Aybar is struggling in the field, so the Braves "at least contemplating making a change" at the position, according to the team's website. Don't get too excited, though. The change would be promoting slick-fielding Daniel Castro, instead of top prospects Dansby Swanson or Ozzie Albies.

Co-closer Jason Grilli walked three batters in his Saturday outing. Arodys Vizcaino's stock keeps going up.

Miami Marlins

The Marlins and Nats played just one game over the weekend after getting rained out on Saturday. Christian Yelich homered in the Marlins' 4-2 loss.

Wei-Yin Chen's next start has been pushed back to Friday. No big deal here – Chen got hit in the elbow by a comebacker last week, and has dealt with some swelling to his elbow. Saturday's postponement gave the Marlins the option to be cautious with Chen.

What's your projected strikeout total for Tuesday's Jose Fernandez-Noah Syndergaard matchup? Is 20 too conservative?

New York Mets

Jacob deGrom will get skipped on Wednesday due to lat soreness, but the Mets say they're not considering a DL stint now. Logan Verrett will start in Matz's place.

Steven Matz gets his first start of the season tonight. Matz was drafted as an SP3 after making just six big-league starts last season, and will surely be feeling the pressure from his fantasy owners.

Headline: "IS IT TIME TO START WORRYING ABOUT MATT HARVEY?" I love the New York Post. (Psst ... the answer is no.)

Philadelphia Phillies

Jeanmar Gomez closed out the Phillies' victories on both Saturday and Sunday. Gomez is owned in just 1.9 percent of FOXSports.com leagues, and should be snatched up immediately, even if the Phils' ninth inning could be a revolving door. Gomez isn't very good, but he has the job for now. On Sunday, manager Pete Mackanin wasn't ready to name Gomez as the full-time closer.

Hard-throwing youngster Vincent Velasquez looked very good on Saturday, whiffing nine Mets in six shutout innings. Velazquez's ownership level is up to 22.5 percent on FOXSports.com.

1B Ryan Howard has two homers in a part-time role so far. Not bad at all – he could hit 20, and not play enough to damage your batting average too badly.

Aaron Nola gets the start in today's home opener against the Padres.

Washington Nationals

OF Ben Revere has officially been diagnosed with a strained oblique, and the timetable for his return from the DL is TBD.

Since the Nats played just one game over the weekend, there's not much news to share. Except for Herbert Hoover joining the ranks of the racing presidents, anyway.

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