All posts under "Player Commentary" - Page 122

Colby Rasmus (OF - Cardinals) - Rasmus has been held out of the lineup for 3 straight games with a sore calf, but the Cardinals expect him to be back on Friday for the start of the series against the...

Baseball held it's annual player draft this week, and as you may have heard, the Nationals didn't go the cheap route, selecitng Bryce Harper with their second consecutive #1 overall pick. In baseball history, no team has ever added this...

Stephen Strasburg- WAS- Rookie- Talk about living up to the hype. Strasburg wasn’t perfect in his major league debut, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits in 7 IP, but he was close enough, striking out 14 batters and walking...

Zack Greinke (SP—Royals) So far, Zack Greinke’s season hasn’t been the kind of year that we would expect having come off a Cy Young award. Yes, the record is pretty sad at 1-8 but we can probably say that that...

A.J. Pierzynski earns 10- and -5 status next Monday, which comes complete with a trade veto power the White Sox may be reluctant to grant, even though he also become a free agent this fall. A.J. may have softened the...

Dan Haren - Haren couldn't pick up a 2nd straight quality start last night against Atlanta, but he did manage to pick up the win with a 5 2/3 IP, 3 ER effort. Haren's scuffles have been discussed ad nauseum...

Nick Markakis: Markakis has been a huge disappointment this year and a close look at his peripherals reveals a 3rd straight year of declining ISO and SB attempts. His plate patience skills are still good (.97 EYE, 19% LD Rate),...

Mike Stanton (OF-FLA) – Astute fantasy owners in Yahoo leagues may have noticed that Stanton is actually available in the Yahoo database. If he’s yet to be picked up in your league, he’s certainly a guy worth a short. Sure,...

Casey Kelly - Starting Pitcher Boston Red Sox The Red Sox 2008 first round pick wanted to explore his two-way capabilities for a while, but finally arrived at the conclusion himself this past winter that his future was on the...

Casey McGehee – After a torrid start to the season, Casey McGehee has cooled off lately, posting just a .205/.222/.472 slash line in the past 14 days with 0 HR and 3 RBI. After recording a .946 OPS in April...

Delmon Young OF (MIN) - I’m joining Drew on his island; Delmon Young has a good chance for a nice second half breakout. At age 24, he is showing some serious improvements in important areas of his game. For starters,...

Brett Cecil - Cecil was outstanding again last night, this time going eight innings and allowing only one run to the Yankees in a 6-1 victory. Cecil has only been hit hard once in nine times out this year, and...

Carlos Zambrano (SP—Cubs) Carlos Zambrano’s return to the starting rotation didn’t work out the way he or the Cubs intended as he took his fourth loss of the season against the Astros. Zambrano wasn’t able to get out of the...

Stephen Strasburg: Strasburg made his final minor league start on Thursday, throwing another 5 shutout innings and lowering his minor league ERA to 1.30 and 0.80 WHIP in 11 starts. He posted a tremendous 65/13 K:BB Rate over his 55...

Jayson Nix: With Mark Teahen out for at least a month, Nix should pick up starts at 3B. When first called up last year he hit with power, but over the 2nd half of the season it was just league...

Miguel Tejada- BAL- Hot- With a BHIPx of .234, some regression to the mean is expected for Tejada. Yesterday might have been the beginning of that. He went 3-for-4 against the Yankees with 2 doubles and a run scored. Since...

David Wright (3B - Mets) - Is that David Wright or did Mark Reynolds put on a Mets uniform? The 2010 Wright story continues to be twofold: homeruns and strikeouts. While his power is back with an AB/HR of 14.7,...

American League 3 Jeremy Hellickson TB SP A This is getting ridiculous. 7-4-0-0-0-7 last time out. 67:12 K:BB in 65 IP. 5 Kyle Drabek TOR SP A 8-4-0-0-1-4 last time out. 3.06 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 3.6 BB/9. August debut? 10...

American League 3 Jeremy Hellickson TB SP A This is getting ridiculous. 7-4-0-0-0-7 last time out. 67:12 K:BB in 65 IP. 5 Kyle Drabek TOR SP A 8-4-0-0-1-4 last time out. 3.06 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 3.6 BB/9. August debut? 10...

Brad Penny: Penny, who has been out with a strained lat muscle, is about two weeks away from returning. Prior to the injury, Penny was putting up good numbers, 3.23 ERA in 9 starts, with solid skills support, 5.7 K/9,...

Matt Holliday - Holliday doubled and walked yesterday, finishing May with a five-game hitting streak in which he hasn't struck out once. Looking at his past three or four years though, Holliday really seems to be slowing down early in...

Kevin Kouzmanoff (3B - A's) - I wouldn't exactly call his one hit on Monday a "breakout," but it was a step in the right direction after going hitless in the first three games of the series against the...

Max Scherzer (SP-DET) – Once in awhile, a pitcher just needs a simple jolt of confidence. It doesn’t often mean that rebuild happens in Triple-A, but that’s exactly what happened with Max Scherzer. Sunday was Scherzer’s first start since his...

Ubaldo Jimenez – How good has Ubaldo Jimenez been in 2010? Well, let’s count the ways. His “worst” start was April 11th against the Padres when he allowed 2 ER in 6 innings of work. He’s yielded 1 HR in...

Justin Morneau 1B (MIN) – Morneau is currently sporting a career high .372 batting average. Unfortunately for owners, it’s likely not sustainable. Morneau has hit over .300 only once in his career, back in 2006, and his current .337 singles...

Mike Redmond- CLE- FYI- Redmond has turned into Fausto Carmona’s personal catcher. That predictability can be good in a backup catcher, since you can figure out when to insert him in the lineup if you own him. But, is Redmond...

Matt Cain (SP—Giants) Matt Cain pitched a gem of a game Friday night against the D-Backs allowing just 1 hit for a 5-0 win. The five runs the Giants scored for him must have seemed like a wealth of riches...

Dan Haren: I thought this was the Dan Haren we got during the 2nd half? The guy who struggled to keep the ball in the park and as a result struggled to pitch to his peripherals. This year the situation...

Conor Jackson (1B - Diamondbacks) - What has happened to Conor Jackson? In 2006 and 2007, Jackson averaged a HR for every 32.3 and 27.7 at-bats. He struggled a bit in 2008, dropping his AB/HR to 45.0 with only 12...

Francisco Liriano – After allowing just 3 ER in 29 IP in April, Liriano had struggled through his first 4 starts in May by yielding 16 ER in 23 IP. But Wednesday, the left hander stymied the Yankees’ offense surrendering...

American League 3 Jeremy Hellickson TB SP A 8-1-0-0-1-5 in last start. Might be in big leagues now if he pitched for one of other 29 teams. 4 Mike Montgomery KC SP A Best start yet in AA last time...

Anibal Sanchez- FLA- Caution- Sanchez threw 116 pitches yesterday after throwing 119 in his previous start. This kind of workload is unprecedented in his major league career. Sanchez did have a quality start, but was a bit wilder (4 BB...

Vladimir Guerrero (DH—Rangers) Vladimir Guerrero continues to put the “S” in Sizzle as he has been hot, hot, hot! Tuesday night Guerrero went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI. For those who may have had doubts about the...

We have a good pitching matchup tonight in the Inner Harbor when Jeremy Guthrie and Dallas Braden lock horns. Guthrie has strung together three straight quality starts and he has been outstanding in his last two, giving up 2 earned...

Johan Santana - To piggyback onto Drew's comment of a few weeks ago, here are a few more stats that illustrate the decline of one of the better pitchers of this generation: his contact% against has risen to its highest...

Michael Young - Young has been scorching in May, as another double and a homer yesterday bring his monthly line to 382/456/551. At age 33, most of Young's indicators have been pointing toward the negative for a few years now,...