Three up, three down: Jordan Walker's breakout has him pushing for first-round status in 2027 Fantasy drafts

On last night's Fantasy Baseball Today, we were talking about Jordan Walker's 2027 value and where he's likely to go in drafts. Walker is in the midst of one of the biggest breakouts of any hitter in baseball this season, and he clubbed his 28th homer and 30th double of the season Tuesday as part of a three-hit game. He needs one more RBI to get to 100 for the season, and he'll probably end up north of 20 steals and 100 runs by the end, too.Add it all up, and Walker has been a top-five hitter in Fantasy. His pace has slowed down a bit since a blazing hot start, though – in 41 games since the All-Star break before Tuesday, he had just five homers, five steals, and a .734 OPS, and his underlying numbers were actually a little bit worse. Add in his utter lack of a track record of any kind before this season, and he looks like one of the more interesting players to try to value for 2027.On the podcast, I said I thought I'd be willing to take him somewhere in the fourth round, off the top of my head, though after doing a bit more research after the podcast I think maybe something closer to the third round sounds right. So imagine my shock when Frank Stampfl pointed to a recent way-too-early 2027 draft that saw Walker go off the board 10th overall! Jordan Walker, first-round pick! What a time to be alive!And of course, I felt a little silly for how much I undersold him in that moment. But you have to remember that this year's first couple of rounds' worth of picks were some of the worst I've ever seen. In fact, Fernando Tatis is now the second-most valuable player picked in the first 30 picks of ADP, behind just Junior Caminero. Between injuries and underperformance, a lot of mainstays from the elite tiers of the Fantasy realm are going to suddenly be a lot cheaper than ever before, and ascending talents like Walker will by necessity have to rise. If Walker closes out the season with another big month, maybe pushing his way closer to a 35-homer, 25-steal outcome, maybe I'll even be able to justify that kind of price. There's still almost four weeks left, and these stories aren't done being written yet. I won't be taking Walker in the first round, personally, but I can certainly see the case for it. And as I start to look toward 2027 with a bit more of a focused eye, maybe I'll talk myself into him. Pre-game Lineup CardHere's what you might have missed from CBSSports.com's MLB coverage in recent days: Five pitchers on the rise. Andrew Painter headlines Scott White's list of pitchers who look like they've figured it out down the stretch. What to watch. Playoff races, Yordan Alvarez's Triple Crown pursuit, hot seats and more stories to watch down the stretch. Biggest series. Dayn Perry breaks down the most important series in September to keep an eye on. Angels sale. The Angels have a new owner, and he's the wealthiest owner in the sport. What could that mean for the team's future? Hitting the WireThe top waiver-wire targets from Tuesday's action: Spencer Jones, OF, Yankees (59%) – I'll admit, I didn't think this was going to work. Jones was putting up an in-zone contact rate around 70% in Triple-A, which is just about the lowest mark you'll see among major-league hitters; how bad were his swing-and-miss issues going to be against major-league pitchers? As it turns out … better? His in-zone contact rate is around 75% so far, which is still bad, but it's in the Rafael Devers/Nick Kurtz range, two guys who make it work thanks to standout bat speed and power production. Jones checks both of those boxes, and while his 35% strikeout rate will still continue to be a drag on his batting average, the overall profile is working right now, as he is putting up something close to a 25-25 pace after he homered and stole another base Tuesday. There are some questions about what the playing time looks like when Aaron Judge returns from his injury (likely next week), but Jones has been good enough to just ignore those questions for now. Lazaro Montes, OF, Mariners (22%) – Montes is another prospect with big-time power and huge swing-and-miss issues, but at least for his first day in the majors, only the good shone through. He hit his first major-league homer to dead center, while going 2 for 4 with a walk, a showcase of what he's capable of. He had 38 homers, the second-most in the minors, before his promotion, while putting up a 94.7 mph average exit velocity, a sign of true top-end power. The strikeouts could be an issue – 31% in the minors before his promotion – so Montes will be on a tightrope as he acclimates to the big leagues. But this is an exciting prospect worth adding in five-outfielder leagues, at least. Yohandy Morales, 1B, Nationals (7% – Morales comes in the same mold as Montes, though not necessarily as extreme – he has good power, but doesn't impact the ball as hard, nor does he strike out quite as much. He joined Montes in hitting his first MLB homer Tuesday, becoming the 14th and 15th players in the league to homer in their first game this season, an MLB record. Morales also struck out twice, but he went 3 for 5 overall and was up to 25 homers down at Triple-A, so while there are some playing time concerns here, this is another talent worth taking seriously if you need power. Mickey Gasper, C, Red Sox (10%) – Gasper is 30 and has never had more than 12 homers in a season before 2026, so I think in the long run he probably isn't going to matter much. But he's on a heck of a heater right now, with seven homers in his past 13 games, and even a brief trip down to Triple-A wasn't enough to derail him. He has a terrific approach at the plate and has put up at least average-ish quality of contact metrics this season, so it's not like there are no skills here, and he looks like he's going to keep playing first base as long as Willson Contreras is out. Again, it's probably just a short-term, hot-hand play, but there also isn't a ton of time left, so if you're in need of help at catcher, why not look his way? Three Up, Three DownThree big performances that have players trending up, and three that have the arrow pointing in the opposite direction. Three UpFernando Tatis is right where he was supposed to beIf you had told your average Fantasy baseball player back in late May that Tatis was going to finish the season as a top-15 hitter and play his way back into first-round consideration for 2027, they would've thought you were crazy. In case you forgot, Tatis finished May with just one homer, 21 runs, and 18 RBI, while putting up a paltry .266/.340/.318 line, and his swing was as messed up as that line would make you think.But he was already back in the top 15 among hitters in Fantasy value before he went 2 for 5 with a pair of homers, his fourth multi-homer game of the season and third in the past two weeks. He is now tied for the fifth-most multi-homer games of the season and at this pace he's probably going to end up having an even better season than he did a year ago. Having seen Tatis screw up his swing and struggle through a deep slump like that will always stick in the back of your mind, but I do think Tatis has played his way back into first-round consideration for 2027 drafts. In fact, how's this for a wild stat: Among the top 30 in ADP entering the season, only Junior Caminero has been worth more than Tatis so far this season. Oneil Cruz remains red hot It's been a while since we've talked much about Cruz in this space, mostly because he didn't play for more than two months with a hand injury. But he's come back from the injury without missing a beat, and he has multiple hits in three of his past four games after a four-hit effort Tuesday against the Giants. The strikeout is still rather outrageously high, and his .387 BABIP this season probably isn't sustainable, even for a guy who hits the ball as hard as Cruz – his career mark is "just" .321, after all. Cruz is going to be a very tough player to rank for 2027, both because of the inherent volatility in his profile and because we aren't going to get a full-season sample for his breakout. But if he runs through the finish line like this, it's going to be tough to argue against him as a top-30 pick, albeit a very risky one – he has missed at least 25 games in four of the past six seasons, too. Freddy Peralta is showing signs of lifeThe Rays have a well-earned reputation for rebuilding broken pitchers, but the biggest change they've made with Peralta is a seemingly small one: They have him pitching out of the stretch exclusively. It's a switch he made during the 2025 season as well, and as Lance Brozdowski noted in his newsletter a few weeks ago, it is a change that has helped Peralta get down the mound more explosively, leading to better extension on his pitches. Otherwise, there haven't been any huge changes in his approach – a few more changes here and there, and he's ditched his slider – but maybe that's enough, as he put together his third quality start in six tries since joining the Rays. He had just four in 22 starts with the Mets, so there's something here, though his overall numbers with the Rays are still pretty mediocre, with 27 strikeouts in 33.1 innings to go with a 4.86 ERA. We're still very much in "baby steps" territory with Peralta's improvement, but it is worth noting. Three DownPaul Skenes has fallen apartSkenes has put a stop to his leaking velocity in recent starts, but it didn't matter Tuesday against the … against the Giants? Really, Paul? Five runs in 4.2 innings against Rafael Devers, Bryce Eldridge, and a bunch of Quad-A guys? Six swinging strikes? A 17% chase rate? C'mon, you're supposed to be Paul Skenes! If we can't trust you against the Giants of all matchups, who can we trust you against? Well, I'll roll him out there against the Angels this weekend, but more reluctantly than I ever have in his career, and if he struggles in that one, I don't see how you can trust him against the red-hot Cubs next week. Logan Webb isn't getting any helpThis has been arguably the weirdest season of Webb's career, and that is, frankly, saying a lot. Even after he gave up nine hits and two walks in just two innings Tuesday against the Pirates, he still has his lowest WHIP since 2023 (1.16), but his 4.21 ERA is now his worst since 2020, before he had really established himself as a big-leaguer. His arsenal just looks a bit weaker across the board, leading to fewer strikeouts than since 2020, and the defense without Willy Adames and Matt Chapman on the left side of the infield probably isn't helping him out much, either. Webb has been a very good pitcher for a pretty long time, and I'm not ready to give up on him because of one weird season in decidedly less than ideal circumstances. But one of the things that separates the true difference makers from the pack at pitcher is the ability to overcome poor circumstances, and I'm not sure Webb is equipped for that. Troy Melton is starting to show cracksMelton has been one of the biggest surprises in Fantasy this season, as he entered Tuesday's start with a 1.86 ERA in his first 16 starts of the season. But that has come with some warning signs, as his iffy bat-missing ability left him extremely reliant on limiting homers and getting help from the defense behind him, and if one of those things fails him, there isn't much of a safety net. He had trouble keeping the ball on the ground Tuesday and the Twins made him pay, clubbing a couple of homers off him en route to five earned runs (seven total) in 5.1 innings of work. The 2.20 ERA is still pretty, but the 3.93 FIP suggests more starts like Tuesday's might be coming. You can only outrun your peripherals for so long. Extra InningsI really don't know what to do with Sean Burke anymoreBurke got back on track with a solid start Tuesday against the Astros, but man, the cracks are starting to show. He got through 5.2 innings of work unscathed despite four walks, but you can't count on an .083 BABIP to prop you up forever, and the red flags are really starting to add up for Burke. In three starts before this one, he had 11 walks to nine strikeouts while allowing 10 runs in 13.1 innings of work. That came after a nine-game (eight-start) stretch where he had a 1.60 ERA, 2.98 xERA, and struck out 79 hitters while walking just 11 in 62 innings. I'm starting to think that mid-summer hot streak was, in fact, just a hot streak, and while the schedule is pretty manageable – he lines up vs. MIN, @STL, @CLE, and @KC to close out the season – he can't be called a "must-start" pitcher anymore. And I'm inclined to think he's going to be overdrafted in 2027 if people value him as a 3.20 ERA guy.