Fantasy Baseball Takeaways: Roki Sasaki Surges, Bryce Miller Flashes Ace Upside

Before we get those lineups for Week 12 set, a few quick thoughts on some things you need to know:

- First up: The Athletics are playing in Las Vegas this week. Not in their under-construction future home, of course, but at the home of their Triple-A affiliate, Las Vegas Ballpark. The A's play in a Triple-A stadium in Sacramento, of course, but while Sacramento actually rates out as one of the more pitcher-friendly venues in the Pacific Coast League, Las Vegas' combination of hot, dry summers and elevation (about 2,000 feet above sea level) makes it an excellent place for offense – according to Baseball America , Vegas had the highest park factor for wOBA in the PCL, while Sacramento had the second-lowest. And Sacramento is, of course, a pretty hitter-friendly ballpark by MLB standards, which tells you how wacky the offensive environment in the PCL is. Expect even more offense during the six games played in Las Vegas this week, and strongly consider sitting your fringey starters. I think I would still trust Kyle Harrison , but J.T. Ginn feels a lot riskier this week. - Bobby Witt left Sunday's game with knee soreness. The Royals downplayed the extent of the injury, but with a day off Monday, we won't know if he's in the lineup this week until lineups lock for many leagues. I would lean toward starting him this week anyway, but I would love an update sometime Monday, one way or another. - Dylan Cease is expected to return to the Blue Jays rotation this week. He tossed 75 pitches in his rehab debut Thursday and would seemingly line up to start either Wednesday against the Phillies or Thursday against the Yankees . With Aaron Judge out, neither matchup is enough to scare me off Cease. - Byron Buxton left Friday's game with shoulder soreness after colliding with the outfield wall, and he missed Saturday and Sunday's games. The expectation is he'll be back in the lineup Tuesday, so I'm inclined to start him, but if you have a reliable option in a points league, it's not crazy to go away from Buxton for one week. - Michael Harris was out of the lineup for two straight with back tightness, but he was able to pinch-hit and came up big with a double Sunday, so I'm guessing he'll be okay for this week. - Chandler Simpson missed two games with a left thumb injury, and he's an easy sit in a points league. I would lean toward sitting him in Roto too, but that might just depend on how badly you need steals.

For more on what you need to know about for Week 12, keep reading for lineup advice, the biggest takeaways from this weekend's action, plus the rest of the news and notes you need to know:

Week 12 Preview

Week 12 waiver targets

- C: Francisco Alvarez , Mets (35%) - 1B: Curtis Mead , Nationals (56%) - 2B: Sam Antonacci , White Sox (56%) - 3B: Royce Lewis , Twins (35%) - SS: Edwin Arroyo , Reds (25%) - OF: Noelvi Marte , Reds (51%), Jasson Dominguez , Yankees (39%), Lars Nootbaar , Cardinals (13%), Jake McCarthy , Rockies (36%) - SP: Reid Detmers , Angels (65%), Dustin May , Cardinals (57%), Gage Jump , Athletics (46%) - RP: Grant Taylor , White Sox (28%), Alex Lange , Royals (11%)

For more deep-league targets, plus my thoughts on each of those players and more, head here .

Week 12 sleeper hitters

Best hitter matchups for Week 12

1.  Mariners  @BAL4, @WAS3 2.  Athletics  MIL3, COL3 3.  Giants  WAS3, CHC3 4.  Cubs  @COL3, @SF3 5.  Astros  @LAA3, @KC3

Worst hitter matchups for Week 12

1.  Blue Jays  PHI3, NYY3 2.  Phillies  @TOR3, @MIL3 3.  Red Sox  @TB3, TEX3 4.  Rangers  @KC3, @BOS3 5.  White Sox  ATL3, LAD3

Top sleeper hitters for Week 12

- Bryce Eldridge , DH, Giants (42%) WAS3, CHC3 - Colt Emerson , SS, Mariners (69%) @BAL4, @WAS3 - Isaac Paredes , 3B, Astros (75%) @LAA3, @KC3 - Carson Benge , OF, Mets (79%) STL3, ATL3 - Jake Bauers , 1B, Brewers (78%) @ATH3, PHI3

Week 12 sleeper pitchers

You can check out Scott's  two-start pitcher rankings here , too. He ranks every projected two-start pitcher for the upcoming week, tiering them from must-starts to no-thanks.

Top sleeper pitchers for Week 12

- Andrew Abbott , Reds (78%) at SD, vs. ARI - Shane Baz , Orioles (75%) vs. SD - Gage Jump, vs. COL (40%) vs. COL - Seth Lugo , Royals (49%) vs. TEX - Tanner Bibee , Guardians (75%) vs. DET

Biggest Weekend Takeaways

Roki Sasaki and Reid Detmers had a heck of a duel

Both pitchers continued their strong runs, with Detmers tossing six shutout innings with six strikeouts and then Sasaki one-upping him in every way possible with seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts. Detmers has 27 strikeouts to five walks over 19 innings of work, and all of his peripherals suggest he deserves something more like a 3.00 ERA – and even if you account for the fact that he's underperformed his peripherals by about three-quarters of a run for his career, hey, a 3.75 ERA with Detmers' strikeout numbers isn't bad.

But Sasaki is the real standout here – in large part because we have at least seen stretches like this from Detmers before. With Sasaki, we're in entirely new territory here. He remade himself this offseason, and then when that didn't work, he did it again around the end of January, as I wrote about in my look at the Week 12 Waiver Wire in yesterday's newsletter. Sasaki broke his splitter up into two different pitchers to go along with his new slider, but what really brings the whole thing together is the re-emergence of his four-seamer fastball. He's been sitting around 98 mph the past couple of starts, and if he can keep that up, Sasaki might actually have the potential to be a difference maker moving forward.

Of course, whether he'll sustain that velocity is an unanswerable question right now. When he's sitting at 96, the fastball is pretty bad; he can survive averaging 97 with it, but his best chances of thriving always come when the fastball has elite velocity to overcome middling shape. This might just be a hot streak for Sasaki, though I do have a hard time seeing him regressing so badly from this point that he just isn't usable anymore. He's down enough to improve his overall arsenal that even if the fastball does revert back to being sub-97, I think Sasaki can survive. But if he can sustain the 98 mph version? He might just be a must-start pitcher, and the potential for that does at least make him must-roster right now.

Bryce Miller might have leveled up

The Mariners pulled the plug on their awkward piggy-back experiment with Miller and Luis Castillo , and Miller responded with one of the best starts we've ever seen from him Saturday. He pitched six one-hit, shutout innings against the Tigers while striking out nine, continuing his run of excellent pitching since coming back from the IL. Miller dominated primarily with the fastball this time around, as he sat at 96.3 mph with it and generated nine swinging strikes – he added five with his splitter and two more with his cutter, though the secondary pitchers continue to mostly be a small part of his arsenal.

Miller is throwing his four-seamer, splitter, and slider a combined 82% of the time, up from 67.8% in 2025. Miller has always used the four-seamer as his primary pitch, while the splitter has been his most-used secondary since his second season, but it's the slider that really stands out here. It mostly looks like the same pitch it's always been – he's throwing it harder this season, but that's because he's throwing everything harder this season. But the biggest difference might be that he has fixed a mechanical flaw that was telegraphing the pitch – when Miller broke into the majors, his release point on his slider was about three inches lower and wider than on his four-seam fastball, a gap that has shrunk a few inches since in each direction. The movement profile otherwise looks the same, but hitters might just be having more trouble picking the pitch up, and those couple of inches could make all the difference.

Either way, Miller is sustaining his velocity bump across the board, is generating a ton more swinging strikes, and so far hasn't had to deal with any side effects from either skill change. His 1.33 ERA is backed up by a 1.82 xERA, and while I don't expect him to remain this good, I'm not necessarily viewing Miller as a sell-high candidate right now, either. It all looks pretty legitimate to me right now.

The Carson Benge breakout is here

I was starting to get pretty worried about Benge, who put up solid quality of contact numbers and poor production in Triple-A last season, and then was doing the same early in his MLB career this season. But while his swing still isn't geared to maximize his above-average raw power yet, Benge is starting to find ways to contribute at the MLB level. He went 5 for 5 with a homer and a triple Sunday and is now hitting .327 with four homers, 19 runs, 15 RBI, and four steals in 25 games since being moved to the leadoff spot back in mid-May. That's the kind of solid five-category production we were hoping for from Benge, and he has the underlying numbers to back it up, including a .386 xwOBA over his past 100 plate appearances. I think he might be a top-30 outfielder in all formats right now.

Tarik Skubal 's return is close

I'll admit, I was deeply skeptical about reports that Skubal might return within six weeks. Now it's looking like he'll just beat that timetable. Skubal made his rehab debut Sunday and was dominant, throwing five scoreless innings on just 54 pitches, almost a month to the day since he underwent surgery to remove loose bodies in his left elbow. He was so dominant against High-A competition that Skubal had to go out to the bullpen to get up to his targeted pitch count of 75. 75 pitches in a competitive outing, barely four weeks after surgery, is stunning stuff, and a sign that the NanoScope procedure really might be a game changer for pitchers dealing with loose bodies in their elbows.

Skubal is the first one to undergo the procedure, and everything has gone so well that it looks like he might be back in the rotation for his next turn through. This all bodes well for Blake Snell , who had his own NanoScope surgery 12 days after Skubal did. We could see him back in the Dodgers rotation before the end of June at this pace.

Adley Rutschman sure looks back

It's easy enough to write off one bad season as a fluke, but when Rutschman followed up a disappointing 2024 season with an even worse 2025, it was fair to wonder if he would ever get back to being a difference maker. Well, he's back, and he just might be better than ever at this point. Rutschman put together a massive four-hit, five-RBI game Friday against the Blue Jays and sits on a .267/.343/.489 line entering play Monday, which would represent the highest OPS and second-highest batting average of his five-year MLB career. And the underlying numbers don't just back it up: They suggest better might be coming.

His xBA? .293. His xwOBA? .379, the best of his career and better even than his .365 actual wOBA. Rutschman has managed to combine both the best strikeout rate (13.5%) of his career with the highest average exit velocity (90.4 mph) and hard-hit rate (47.7%) of his career, a neat trick if you can pull it off. It's always tricky to try to project anything forward with catchers, given the high rate of attrition inherent to the position. But Rutschman looks well situated for a career-best season, and a boon for anyone who took the flier on him at the cheapest price of his career.

Homers remain an issue for Ryan Weathers

Weathers' early-season dominance never quite sat right with me. For one thing, he was doing it while actually losing velocity from recent years – a reasonable trade-off for a guy who has struggled to stay on the mound, but not one I would necessarily expect to lead to better results. And then there was the fact that Weathers was dancing around trouble with the quality of contact he was allowing – in April, he had a .318 wOBA against, compared to a much worse .3

_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/fantasy-baseball-weekend-takeaways-roki-sasaki-surges/)._