MLB Player News

Giants first baseman Brandon Belt only received one plate appearance Monday, but made it count. 

Belt hit a walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth inning. Belt took a Tony Sipp slider to center field, scoring Andres Torres for the game-winning run. Belt has seen his playing time cut recently due to an early season slump. Belt is hitting .197/.239/.246.

Dodgers outfield prospect Joc Pederson was named Southern League player of the week Monday. Pederson hit .407 (11 for 27) with two doubles, two home runs, five RBI, seven runs, four walks and three stolen bases in seven games from April 15-21.

After opening the season hitless in the first two games (0 for 7), Pederson has hit safely in his last 15 games. He's batting .318 with a .370 on-base percentage, .682 slugging percentage and 1.052 OPS through 17 games. He also has two triples, five doubles, five home runs, 12 RBI and six stolen bases.

Pederson is considered a top 5 prospect in the Dodgers' system by MLB.com (No. 3) and Baseball America (No. 4).

Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter went deep for his second home run of the season during Sunday's series finale against the Phillies.

Carpenter's solo homer came off starter Kyle Kendrick with one out in the opening frame. He finished 1 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI in a 7-3 victory.

Carpenter is hitting .266/.338/.453 with two home runs and seven RBI in 64 at-bats.

Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton went 2 for 5 with a pair of singles during a 10-6 loss at Cincinnati on Sunday. Stanton also delivered his first RBI of the season with his run-scoring base hit in the ninth inning.

However, he matched a season high with three strikeouts and has now whiffed at least once in each of the past five games (nine total). Stanton has walked just once in that span and is hitting just .188 on the season.

Giants first baseman Brandon Belt was held out of the lineup for Sunday's series finale against San Diego and could miss additional playing time as the team looks to shake him from his early slump. Belt has recorded just two hits in his last 13 at-bats to drop his batting average to .183; he has yet to reach the Mendoza Line this year.

"This isn't a case where he's getting benched," manager Bruce Bochy told the San Jose Mercury News on Sunday. "But we need to get (Joaquin) Arias out there, so (Belt) is going to miss a couple of games. He's been through this as much as anybody. The frustration can maybe cause you to change a few things and maybe add tension. When you have tension in your swing, that doesn't work."

No big secret here, but this Bryce Harper kid's pretty good. After slugging two home runs Saturday against the Mets, Harper has seven in the team's first 17 games, putting him on pace for 65-plus. It's probably fair to say Harper will not reach that total, but it just goes to show how little time it has taken for him to cement himself as a high-end Fantasy contributor.

After an up-and-down rookie season in which he needed 40 games to hit his seventh home run, Harper has been a model of consistency this season. After Saturday's game, Harper has at least 24.5 Fantasy points in each of the first three weeks of the season. It's nice to be able to pencil in that kind of production every week, especially coming from the No. 9 outfielder drafted on average.

You don't need a weekly notification telling you to keep Harper in the starting lineup, but it is nice to be reminded that you drafted a stud. As Scott White notes in his Hit Parade column, starting Harper is a no-brainer. 

Nationals left fielder Bryce Harper enjoyed another big day at the plate Saturday against the Mets.

Harper had his second multi-home run game of the season in a 7-6 victory. He took starter Jeremy Hefner deep in the third inning for a two-run home run. The 20-year-old then broke a 6-6 tie with a solo shot off reliever Josh Edgin in the eighth.

Harper added a double in the fifth and finished 3 for 3 with a walk, two runs scored and three RBI. He is 6 for 12 with four runs scored, two homers and three RBI in his last three games. He is hitting .371/.426/.758 in 62 at-bats.

Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton went 1 for 6 with an infield single during Miami's 3-2 loss at Cincinnati in 13 innings Saturday, keeping his batting average below .200. Stanton snapped an 0-for-7 skid with only his seventh hit of the season (in 43 at-bats) to actually raise his batting average to .163.

The 6-foot-5 brute also swiped his first base Saturday -- giving him more stolen bases (one) than home runs and RBI combined. Stanton didn't hit his first home last season until April 29 while finishing with 37.

Marlins outfield prospect Marcell Ozuna joined the lineup for Double-A Jacksonville on Saturday for the first time this season after overcoming a wrist injury he suffered in spring training. Ozuna was sidelined for nearly a month due to a fractured left wrist, but he appeared in four games with Class A Jupiter earlier this week during the final part of his rehab.

The 22-year-old who is considered Miami's third-best outfield prospect by MLB.com amassed 24 homers and 95 RBI in a full season with Jupiter last year -- his third minor-league campaign with at least 20 home runs. Ozuna could make his MLB debut as soon as 2014.

The Cardinals' Matt Carpenter, who was hit in the throat by a ball off the bat of Ryan Howard Thursday night, was in the starting lineup Friday against the Phillies. 

"It shocked him a bit, he was wondering how it was going to feel himself," manager Mike Matheny told MLB.com. "He came in early, and they ran him through a battery of tests and everything came out clear."

Carpenter went 0 for 2 with a walk in the the rain-shortened 8-2 loss, dropping his average to .267.