All posts under "Player Commentary" - Page 131

Kevin Slowey (SP—Twins)—I’m a little perplexed by Kevin Slowey. I can’t really decide what kind of season he is putting together. Yes, he is tied for the major league lead in wins at 10, so he has been getting the...

Robinson Cano (OF – Yankees) A bounce-back season was predicted from Cano in ’08. This projection was largely based on an unlucky BABIP of .286 in ’08, but we have seen more than just regression to the mean from Cano...

Chris Young: Young, who has been out with a shoulder injury, is not expected back until after the All-Star break. Before hitting the DL, Young was struggling, 4-6 with a 5.21 ERA, and the drop in his skills, 2008/2009 K/9’s...

Casey McGehee: McGehee stayed hot on Thursday knocking out his 3rd HR of the season in a 1-4 effort. He’s now hitting .414/.469/.672 here in June with 9 extra base hits in 58 AB’s (15.5% exbh rate). Unfortunately while the...

American League 36 Tyler Flowers CHW C B .311/.411/.607 in June after a poor May. Just .239 vs. RHP vs. .361 vs. southpaws. 38 Brandon Allen CHW 1B B Promotion to AAA looks well-deserved: 8-for-17 with a HR there. Konerko's...

Yuniesky Betancourt: Betancourt will likely land on the DL with a hamstring injury. Despite having great contact skills, 92% Ct%, Betancourt is a hacker, 4% BB%, with little power, 2 home runs in 224 AB, or speed, 3 steals. Even...

Matt Lindstrom (RP—Marlins) -- I know closers are hard to come by, at least reliable closers. You just can’t turn the corner and find a Rivera or a Papelbon standing on every street corner. But at the rate that Matt...

Ian Snell (SP – Pirates) Kudos to Paul for predicting the bomb of a start that Snell tossed up against the Indians last night. Snell needed 70 pitches to labor through just 2.2 innings while walking 3 and striking out...

Max Scherzer- ARI- Caution- With the Rangers coming to town starting tonight, it’s time to take a quick look at Scherzer’s home/road splits. They are not pretty for someone facing the Texas lineup in his home park, if you have...

Skip Schumaker (OF-STL) – No sense writing about Albert Pujols and his two homers / six RBI day, as we all know how good Pujols is. Instead, let’s look at Schumaker, who went 2-for-4 with a double, walk, RBI, and...

David Aardsma (RP—Mariners)—OK, let’s get real here for a second. Prior to this season, David Aardsma had a career ERA of 5.29, had a BB/9 of 5.6, an H/9 of 9.3, a WHIP of 1.65 and never had saved a...

Manny Corpas: Corpas has bone chips in his elbow, which will likely lead to a stint on the DL. His 5.40 ERA is misleading as he is showing good skills, 6.5 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, and a 49% GB%. A low...

Alexei Ramirez (SS - White Sox) - Alexei has been hot and cold the last few weeks, hitting only .182 over the last 7 days, but with 4 HR and 2 SB in the month of June. He looked to...

Adrian Gonzalez: Gonzalez busted out of a slump in a big way on Thursday going 4-4 with a 2B, HR, and 2 RBI’s. As usual he was the majority of the Padres offense accounting for half the Runs scored and...

Roy Halladay: Halladay was placed on the 15-Day DL retroactive to June 13th with a groin strain. He should return as soon as he is eligible on June 28th. Considering that he probably has the best skill set of any...

Joba Chamberlain- NYA- FYI- In 12 starts this year, Joba has walked at least 4 batters 5 times. None of those outings was longer than 6 IP. This indicates some real problems at times locating the strike zone. Joba still...

Mike Hampton (SP-Astros)—it’s hard to be surprised that Mike Hampton has returned to the disabled list on Wednesday, this time with a groin injury. Hampton has done decently for the Astros this season from time to time, holding his own...

American League 22 Ben Revere MIN OF B+ Just .222 in June after a .388 May, but did have 3 hits on Tuesday, so perhaps a surge? 26 Chris Carter OAK 1B B+ .321 with 3 HR in June but...

Hank Blalock - Blalock has definitely flown under the radar a bit this year, but the 28 year old has had a much better year than meets the eye. What's killing his stat line is twofold: a drastic reduction in...

Dave Bush- MIL- Cold- Despite being 29 years old, Bush may still be affected by high pitch count games. He has not thrown a quality start in his last 5 outings, the first of which was a 116-pitch effort. Last...

Chris Coghlan (OF-FLA) – Playing left field with Josh Willingham out, Coghlan was one of eight hitters with at least two hits on Sunday, going 2-for-4 with a double and a pair of walks Sunday against the Blue Jays. Most...

Brett Anderson: The results weren’t particularly great for Brett Anderson on Sunday, but the peripherals continue to show improvement. Anderson was battered around for 8 hits in just 4 innings which turned into 6 ER’s and resulted in his 7th...

Zach Duke - Zach Duke is, to put it simply, a microcosm of pitching in general. In 2005 (8-2, 1.81 ERA, .296 BABIP, 26.4% LD) you saw extremely lucky Duke. In 2006 and 2008 (15-29, 4.62 ERA, .327 BABIP, 20.4%...

David Ortiz (DH--Red Sox)-- It has been well documented what a difficult season it has been for David Ortiz. Fantasy owners that were expecting the usually offensive numbers from Ortiz have instead acquired one of the biggest fantasy busts so...

Joba Chamberlain (SP – Yankees) Joba was extremely wild on Friday night by needing to throw 100 pitches to make it through just 4 innings. He walked 5 batters on the night, but managed to limit the damage to just...

Wesley Wright: The Astros recalled Wright from Triple-A to work in middle relief. His dominance shows some nice potential, 2008/2009 K/9’s of 9.2/9.9, but until he gets the walks in check, BB/9’s of 5.0/4.0, you will see a high ERA,...

Max Scherzer: Scherzer dominated the Giants for 7 2/3 innings limiting them to just 3 hits and a walk, while striking out 6. Scherzer’s peripherals stack up pretty well with his actual production as his FB tendencies and bouts with...

Jed Lowrie: Lowrie is close to starting a minor league rehab assignment which could put him on target for a late June to early July return to the Red Sox lineup. In his debut last year, Lowrie showed some interesting...

Dioner Navarro- TB- Cold- Navarro was a big part of Tampa Bay’s 2008 World Series run, hitting .295. This season, a combination of bad luck (.198 BHIPx) and hideously poor patience (3 BBs in 173 ABs) have crushed him. After...

Willie Bloomquist: We haven’t touched on Bloomquist yet this year but the speedy/no power MI option has found a way to make himself fantasy valuable. Bloomquist had always been a deep AL only MI option because of the consistent double...

Stephen Strasburg- WAS- FYI- Matt Wieters? He is so last month. The latest hype machine surrounds Stephen Strasburg, who will officially become property of the Nationals as soon as the Major League Draft gets underway this evening. If you’ve been...

Ben Zobrist - Zobrist reached base three more times yesterday against the Yanks, keeping his OPS up near the 1.100 mark for another day. I like Zobrist quite a bit three years back when he was a high AVG minor...

Michael Bourn (OF-HOU) – Bourn was 2-for-4 with a walk on Sunday, bringing the 26 year-old center fielder to .298/.371/.399 in 208 at-bats. He’s stolen 19 bases in 23 attempts and now has five multi-hit games in his last six,...

Erik Bedard: Bedard’s effort yesterday was enough to pick up a win, but also enough to raise some concerns. Bedard allowed just 2 hits and 2 ER’s in 5 innings while striking out 4, but he needed over 100 pitches...

Every year about this time ... actually a week later than this time ... I recap the first few picks of the MLB First Year Player Draft. And every year I get a few emails saying that these players are...

Aaron Miles: Miles started his rehab assignment yesterday and should be back with the Cubs on Wednesday. With injuries and inconsistent play in the Cubs infield, Miles should see plenty of playing time. He doesn’t hit for power, 0 home...