As we look at risers and fallers in points leagues, the focus should not just be on how players are performing, but what their role is.
Are your hitters suddenly leading off or batting lower in the order than expected? Have they gotten an off-day, and is it because the manager put them in a platoon? Or did they get subbed out at the end of a game for defensive reasons?
As for pitchers, did they get pulled after just 70-80 pitches, or were they allowed to work deep into the game? And could anyone on the IL or in the minors threaten their rotation spot?
As volume is everything in points leagues, these are the questions you want to answer beyond just whether a player gets hot. So, given their role and their performance, who should you buy in on, and who should you leave alone?
Risers
As Eric Sogard’s cousin and Steve Sax’s nephew, Nick Sogard has been around the big leagues for a long time. But it’s been a journey to make it here himself, as he was drafted 368th overall back in 2019. Still, the 28-year-old worked his way through the minors and finally cracked the Show in 2024. He appeared in about 20 games in 2024 and didn’t do anything special (zero homers, .651 OPS). He’d go on to play about the same number of games the next season and came away with almost identical stats.
But now he’s here to stay, and has unlocked a new gear in his game. That game plays extremely well in points, as both his Chase rate and Whiff rate are around 20% (which is elite), and he’s been walking more than 15% of the time, which translates into a .394 OBP. He doesn’t hit the ball terribly hard but has collected nine doubles in 128 at-bats, elevating his OPS over .800.
There is a potential red flag here, and his name is Roman Anthony. There’s an open question as to whether the Sox would want Anthony to lead off and move Sogard down the order (potentially far down). But might the Red Sox see that Sogard’s working out pretty well in the role and let him keep it until he cools off? The Sox, as you might have heard, have been playing pretty well of late, and it’s partly because they have a leadoff guy getting on base nearly 40% of the time. It might be hard to bump him, with or without Roman.
Some Rookie of the Year talk is brewing in the Big Apple. After a disastrous first hundred plate appearances, Benge has made steady progression to become an All-Star-caliber player and now is charging into the ROTY conversation. And he’s found another gear in August, hitting .338 with a .983 OPS and five homers, all while striking out less than 20% of the time.
Benge has solid metrics to back up this performance. His xBA (.281) is right around his actual (.278), He’s got solid Hard-Hit and Squared-Up rates, and makes good decisions at the plate. And as he adjusts to Major League pitching, you can see gains across the board in these bi-monthly splits. I can’t wait to see what he does in September.
Once a player for the Savannah Bananas, Peters broke out his banana bat during Player’s Weekend and parked a walk-off homer against the Mets. But that wasn’t his only highlight over the past week, as he homered in three straight games with a .320 average and a .760 SLG. He also stole a base for good measure.
A minor league journeyman who’s traversed through four different farm systems before he was 26, Peters has found himself where few seventh-round draft picks (and former Bananas) rarely have gone. And his game is pretty well suited to points leagues, with a sub-20% K-rate, good doubles power, and a decent OBP.
But now, the bad news. Peters is woeful against lefties, and I don’t use that adjective lightly: we’re talking a .122 batting average with a .339 OPS, almost 500 points lower than his mark against righties. Even during Tristan’s breakout season, the White Sox brought in Brenton Doyle specifically as a platoon partner. So this is going to limit Peters’ upside, as he won’t have the volume you need in to put up consistent points the rest of the way. Peters also went through a stretch of games after the All-Star Break where he batted .153 (which helped spur the White Sox to go after Doyle). But it’s a heck of a story and hard not to root for the kid.
Gasper’s gone from not homering in his first 119 plate appearances to hitting five of them in his last 29. Baseball, why can’t you make sense?
Well, maybe a round ball hitting a round bat isn’t supposed to stand to reason. But in all the madness, Mickey Gasper—the 817th pick in the 2018 draft—has a 1.954 OPS in August.
Sometimes when you grind through the Minors for the better part of a decade, you find some folks that believe in you. Gasper found that in Chad Tracy, who used to manage the AAA affiliate of the Red Sox and now is in charge of the big club. Tracy’s been a champion of Gasper’s and is a big reason why he is where he is—which is, for now, the hottest player in the Major Leagues.
One thing to note, though: while Gasper’s a switch-hitter, he is about as good at hitting lefties as Tristan Peters, with a .105 average and a .210 OPS. So chances are pretty high you won’t see him in everyday lineups until that’s fixed.
A major reason for this is an adjusted arm angle, lowered from 42 degrees in 2024 to 35 degrees this season, and it looks like the change is finally paying dividends. Zebby’s 4-0 in August after navigating a nightmare July, when he went 0-3 with a 1.70 WHIP and a 7.66 ERA. But he says he’s not trying to get cute anymore and has simplified his approach to pound the strike zone with good pitches.
It’s working. In his last outing versus the Athletics, Zebby went seven strong innings with the same amount of K’s, allowing just one walk and a run scored. And the Twins have the sixth-easiest remaining schedule this season, so he should be getting more chances to shine against weaker opponents.
