Jonny Gomes - Three homers in a couple of days for Gomes, who might have a little window here between the troubles of Elijah Dukes and the re-injury of Rocco Baldelli yesterday in a minor-league rehab stint. No matter how much Gomes is struggling, he is going to hit for power....his career ISO's of .226 in the majors and .268 in the minors attest to that. Once the Rays come back to AL play, that'll open up even more AB's for him....he's a worthwhile pickup in deeper leagues, and everyone should be at least keeping an eye on him as he has true 40 HR potential with enough playing time.
Brendan Harris - Harris continued his hot hitting with a single, triple, and homer (his 8th) last night against the D-Backs, bringing his line for the year up to 321/376/502. I find it hard to believe that a middle infielder with a career minor league line of 295/363/469 over 2,240 AB's can only manage 110 AB's at the major-league level despite being ready for a trial for the past three and a half years. That's basically one month of AB's spread over three years. The Cubs, Nationals, and Reds should be ashamed of themselves, but if you look at the majority of their moves over the past few years, the treatment of Harris isn't the only questionable decision in any of those venues. For anyone questioning how much of his power is for real, Harris hit about 40 homers over what amounts to about two full seasons at AAA the past few years, a good portion of which came in the heavy air of New Orleans. I wouldn't think that 20 HR's at the Trop would be out of the question. A great find by the Rays here, and there's no reason to think that he won't remain productive the rest of the way.
Octavio Dotel - Dotel's last ten appearances: 9.1 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 6/6 in save opps. Not too bad for a guy that many thought shouldn't have been handed the closer's role for good when Joakim Soria went on the DL. After watching the two of them mow through the Cards in the eighth and ninth last night, I'd just say "whatever works." Dotel looks pretty good right now, and is clearly worth using in all formats.
Marcus Thames - Thames singled and homered last night in a rare bit of playing time, but the important thing to keep in mind is that Thames is one of those guys that is one injury away from being rather valuable. The Tigers insist on continuing to play Sean Casey despite the fact that his ISO (.071) is barely more than one-third that of Thames' (.206). Perhaps that makes sense against righties, but against lefties as well? Thames is worth keeping an eye on for his power potential, and an injury to any of the Tigers' OF/1B/DH group is cause to pick him up.
Jason Kendall - Kendall extended his modest hitting streak to six games last night with a single against the Reds. That may not seem like much, so how about this: the six extra-base hits that Kendall has during his streak quadrupled his season total to that point. Yikes. Perhaps the promotion of Kurt Suzuki was just what Kendall needed to shake the rust off, I don't know. I wouldn't bank on the continued power surge, but it was hard to fathom that a player (even a catcher) with a career OBP of .381 (and a career-low of .335) would suddenly stop being able to reach base completely, so a continuation of the streak in that vein seems likely.
