Francisco Liriano finally allowed his first home run of the year. In fact he allowed two home runs last night. This start was not as dominant as his previous starts as he left a lot of fastballs in the middle of of the zone. His night could have been worse if it wasn’t for an outstanding play by Starling Marte in the third and Shin-Soo Choo getting caught stealing in the first inning. Overall, his command wasn’t very good and he didn’t generate a lot of swings and misses. For the season he has the second best swing and miss rate (32.4 percent) in the majors, but is also walking batters 9.3 percent of the time, which puts him in the bottom 15 percent of the league. I do not like pitchers who have control issues because they’re extremely unpredictable. If you own him, sell high.

Now let’s talk about some positive news. Josh Johnson pitched 7.1 innings and recorded ten strikeouts against the Rockies. He achieved a lot of those strikeouts by challenging hitters with fastballs up in the zone. Speaking of the fastball, he threw it and the cutter on both sides of the plate effectively. The slider looked good as he threw it down and in to lefties and down away from righties (same location). His next starts are against offensive juggernauts Orioles, Red Sox and Tigers so you’re going to be using him any time soon. I’m not a believer that he’s “back”, but if he’s available in your league, add him because his upside is immense.

Adeiny Hechavarria can really pick it at shortstop. I haven’t had a chance to see him play that much because it’s the Marlins, but he made at least four plays that saved hitters from getting hits. He has good range and body control with a good arm. For fantasy he shouldn’t be owned except for a NL-only league. Jacob Turner pitched in this game and I was not impressed as his command was loose the entire game and wasn’t missing enough bats to compensate. For the season he’s almost at a ten percent walk rate, which like I mentioned with Liriano, is something I stay away from. Turner should be owned only in NL-only leagues.