Welcome back, ladies and gents.

The George Springer show arrived since we last spoke. Since May 11, Springer has slashed .340/.450/.780, buoyed by six home runs. Over that span, he’s also walked in 15% of his plate appearances while striking out 26.7% of the time. He’s always going to run high strikeout rates; the trick will be offsetting them with hard contact. Springer’s meteoric rise through the minors was because of his ability to barrel the ball. In short, he needs to make it count when he makes contact. So far, in May, he’s done that and then some.

Ho-hum, Xander Bogaerts’ OBP is still in the top 25 among qualified major league hitters. Yangervis Solarte just keeps hitting. He isn’t swinging and missing. And he isn’t chasing pitches. I’m not sold yet, but I also didn’t think his run would last this long.

Rougned Odor’s holding his own, and thanks to Jurickson Profar’s latest setback it appears his audition will be extended for a quite awhile. Jackie Bradley Jr. is still struggling, which pains me because he’s extremely easy to root for. I was never a big fan of Bradley’s in fantasy, but he’s on the verge of losing playing time at this point.

Lastly, Kolten Wong is back. Since being called back up on May 16, Wong has slashed .364/.432/.455 and swiped four bags. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been sent down after all.

On the pitching side of things, Masahiro Tanaka is still doing Tanaka things. His only blemish so far has been the homerun ball. In this report, however, he’s going to be edged out by a teammate for attention. Dellin Betances has been absolutely unreal. Take it away, Jeff Sullivan:

In spring training, Betances had to fight to make the roster, as it turned out he had a fourth-year option. He was more than good enough, though, and since the end of camp he’s taken things to another level. Betances owns baseball’s second-highest strikeout rate. His walks have been perfectly fine, and he’s even managed to keep the ball on the ground. The whole result: Betances is running an xFIP- of 32, where 100 is league average. Put another way, if you add together Betances’ ERA, FIP, and xFIP, you get 4.01. David Price‘s ERA is 4.28.

Yep. Couldn’t have put it any better.

Collin McHugh just keeps striking out hitters. He’s never posted a strikeout rate this high…not even in the minors. It’s easy to scream: “Fluke,” but his strikeout rate is backed up by an above average swinging strike rate and a below average contact rate. He’s becoming a little more legit each and every start. I’m still skeptical, though.

It appears as if the book is out on Carlos Martinez. He hasn’t been able to do anything with left-handed batters. Lefties have punished him to the tune of a .378 wOBA so far. He’s only struck out 10.2% of the left-handed batters he has faced so far, while walking 14.3% (!) of them. Compare those stats to his numbers versus right handed batters: 24.6% strikeout rate and 4.6% walk rate. Unless Martinez figures something out, he’s on the road towards being a right handed specialist.

Lastly, Yordano Ventura appears to have been spared for the time being. I’d probably still be shopping him in single year leagues. At the rate pitching injuries have begun to pile up, I fully expect his arm to become dislodged from his body.