"July 2007" Monthly Archives

   Underperforming Hitters Who Are Coming Around   Good morning everybody. Today we are going to look at players who have generally not met our expectations this season, but who have been showing signs of life lately. Even though...

Joe Blanton - Joe Blanton has been whining about the presence of rookie Kurt Suzuki behind the plate for his last few starts, but there are a few other factors at work in his last five starts that aren't likely...

It is time to dumpster dive for starts! Want to know how I can tell? Congratulate me, I am now the proud owner of Jesse Litsch! My league has 5 reserves and currently all 5 of my reserves, Carlos Beltran,...

Ron Mahay- TEX- Trade- Although his 2.77 ERA and K/9 of 7.38 look nice, Mahay has little fantasy value even after being traded to the Braves. His WHIP of 1.38 and BB/9 ratio of 4.85 are mediocre. Combine that with...

Derrek Lee: Two weeks back I suggested Lee's power numbers were suffering from a bit of bad luck with the # of fly balls he's seen leave the yard. Well... Lee's making me look like a genius these days as...

It continues to be one of those years for Richie Sexson and his owners. He showed some signs of breaking out last week, hitting his only two homeruns of the month, but is still hitting just .178 in July and...

Nelson Cruz: Cruz celebrated his return to the bigs with a 2-3 effort on Saturday night with 2 HR's and 5 RBI's. This is what Cruz does, he has incredible raw power and has been a big time power threat...

Texas Rangers- TEX- Trade- The fire sale has begun in the Metroplex. The Rangers received minor league catcher Max Ramirez from the Indians in exchange for Kenny Lofton. Ramirez has potential with the bat, as shown by his .303 average...

Dontrelle Willis, of the Florida Marlins, is a first half pitcher and that is no secret. Over his career Willis is 42-24 in the first half and 23-25 in the second half so it should come as no surprise that...

Luis Castillo: Castillo's constantly sore legs prevent him from being a force on the basepaths, 9 steals in 13 attempts. Without the steals and with a .299 BHIP%, there is plenty of downside with his powerless .306 batting average. Josh...

The Elusive Hold   The Hold is a relatively new metric that attempts to measure the effectiveness of a middle relief pitcher. The growing popularity of fantasy baseball has given the hold a little more air time in recent...

Chris Ray- BAL- Inj Update- Reading between the lines of what's coming out of Baltimore, don't expect Ray to be back this season. He is not going to be even picking up a baseball for the next three weeks and...

The big news at the end of the bullpen this week comes from Baltimore where closer Chris Ray was felled by a bone spur in his elbow.  He is gone for at least a month it would appear. The...

Josh Johnson looked good in a rehab start, throwing three perfect innings in a Class A game on Wednesday. The Marlins are considering bringing Johnson back to pitch on Tuesday against the Rockies, which would make him a two-start pitcher...

American League 39 Chris Lubanski KC OF B- Needs to hit better than his .179 AAA mark if he wants to be team's LF next year. 42 Jeff Clement SEA C B- Strange...after a .370 June, Clement is batting just...

John Rheinecker went 7 innings against the M's on Tuesday in his second MLB start of the season, allowing one unearned run on 6 hits and a walk while striking out 4. He earned his first win of the year,...

Jarrod Saltalamacchia: In his first 137 career AB, Saltalamacchia is off to a nice start, 4/12/.285. At just 22 years of age, there are a few warning signs that suggest some rough spots in the near future. An inflated .290%...

Coco Crisp - Crisp had four more hits last night, giving him ten in his last three games, and also boosting his July line to 366/430/606. This last flurry has bumped his 2007 line above last year's totals, and although...

Chad Billingsley- LAN- Hot- Billingsley, besides having the most preppie sounding name in the majors, now has his first complete game to his credit. He was far more efficient than his last start, when he needed 113 pitches to get...

Manager Joe Torre stole my thunder yesterday. I was really excited to compare Shelly Duncan to Shane Spencer in today's column and then Torre decided to drop Spencer's name in his post-game show. Well anyway, Duncan joined the Yankees late...

Kaz Matsui: It's been a tale of two Matsui's over the last few weeks as Hideki has put on a show while Kaz has struggled mightily. Matsui's gone 3-28 since the Rockies hit the road and this only emphasizes his...

Today we are going to take a look at some of the players we haven't profiled yet that show up on Baseball America's mid-season Top 25 (or so) prospects. Jacob McGee  - Rays Starter - Throws Left - 6-3,...

Jhonny Peralta: After an off-year, it may appear that Peralta's power is back to 2005 levels, 2005/2006/2006 home run totals of 24/13/14 and doubles of 35/28/17, but Peralta will have trouble maintaining this pace with his GB% trending in the...

Scott Olsen Just a kid being a kid, or is there something more here? After getting suspended for reportedly arguing with teammates and a clubhouse attendant, Olsen came out and pitched brilliantly for seven innings in beating the Reds on...

Eric Bedard, of the Baltimore Orioles, has been on his game in July and as a matter of fact most of the season. Bedard was awesome on Friday night against the Oakland Athletics, twirling seven innings of one hit shutout...

All this talk about Brandon Webb's control has failed to mention one thing-it's improving. Yesterday he enjoyed his best start in almost a month, going seven strong innings, in which he surrendered three runs, two of which were earned, on...

Keep your eyes open for the most predicable injury in sports history. With two phony baloney homers yesterday Barry B*nds moves to within two homers of a tying Hank Aaron on the All-Time homerun list, the most predictable sham...

Jermaine Dye: With 5 home runs in his last 33 AB, Dye is showing signs of breaking out his season-long slumber. He battled a quad strain in the first-half and could finally be healthy. The lingering quad problem could have...

Bartolo Colon- LAA- Cold- The former Cy Young Award winner is not coming anywhere near that level of performance this year. After last night's subpar performance (5 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 4 BB, 7 K) Colon has thrown only...

While Carlos Zambrano earned his 12th win in the opposing dugout, Matt Cain watched his record drop to 3-11. Of course, Cain didn't help his cause this time around, giving up 6 ER in just 4.0 IP against the Cubbies....

A couple of returns highlight this week’s Closer Look.   In Tampa Al Reyes returned from his rotator cuff strain on the first day he was eligible. He returns to the closer’s role in Tampa replacing veteran Gary Glover...

American League 16 Adam Jones SEA OF B+ Official call-up hasn't come yet, but reportedly team just wants him comfortable with RF first. 30 Josh Fields CHW 3B B Has raised AVG 30 points in July and is cutting down...

It was a great pitching duel at the Dome on Tuesday as Nate Robertson and the Tigers beat Matt Garza and the Twins 1-0. Nate went 7 shutout IP allowing just 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5....

Russell Martin: While the 11 home runs and 21 doubles is impressive, it is hard to believe that Martin can keep up that kind of power with a 49% GB rate. Add in the rigors of catching as the season...

Pitching Category Mashup Revisited (K/BB and QS%)   Good morning everybody. For today's First Pitch we are going to revisit some analysis we did earlier in the year. Back in May, we were looking for another way to help identify...

Matt Garza - Garza has been overlooked a bit this year, both by the Twins and by most fantasy players, after a poor MLB debut last season. The fact remains, however, that Garza has managed a strikeout rate of 10.36...