Conor Jackson - Jackson has been scuffling a bit lately, but in my mind the 25 year old is a breakout waiting to happen. There might be one or two hitters per team that can exert enough control over the strike zone to earn more walks than strikeouts. Jackson, with 29 BB's against 22 K's this year, has been that sort of hitter throughout most of his career. His minor league line of 332/423/530 might remind you of his potential, and his EYE and ISO are actually a touch better this year than last....he's just lost about 25 points of AVG so far. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Jackson put up something like 300/375/475 within a few years, which may not be all that impressive in the power category, but is pretty darn valuable anyway. He is the kind of hitter that you might want to target in trade in keeper leagues around this time of year, because not only can he help you now, but he's probably at a nice discount to the value that he's likely to provide down the road.
Matt Cain - Cain continues to struggle with his control, and the question here is which statistic is more relevant: 2-8 or 3.46? Neither one is tremendously informative on its own, but Cain's control has been bad enough (he's leading the NL in BB allowed) that I'd lean toward the record being more predictive than the ERA. At least the Giants pulled him after 98 pitches.....his last six starts consisted of nothing less than 112-pitch outings, and for a 22 year old that concerns me a bit. I think that Drew is right in assuming that Cain's ceiling is limited to that of a #2 or #3 starter in his present form....the extremely low HR rate is mitigated by the high BB rate and a mediocre K rate. He has the talent to be an ace, but that isn't the likely outcome as far as I can see, and I think he's just as likely to have an ERA over 4.00 the rest of the way as he is to come in under that.
Mike Lamb - Just like last year, Mike Lamb has started the season as a reserve and worked himself into a flexible starting role by hitting better than just about any other Astro. Lamb hit in his eighth straight game last night and is now hitting 321/390/504 for the year. He's a good enough hitter to justify a starting spot in NL-only and deeper mixed leagues now that he's getting consistent playing time, and his positional flexibility just adds to his value. Those of you in more complicated leagues with many starting spots can well appreciate this kind of player.
Troy Tulowitzki - Tulowitzki hit his fifth homer of the year against the Jays last night, and for June he has managed to bump his ISO up to .182. That, in my opinion, is much more indicative of what to expect from him going forward than his April/May performance would lead you to believe. He's still only 22 years old with about one full minor league season under his belt, so let's not color him disappointing just yet...I think he is ready to become a valuable part of the Rockie lineup.
Carlos Zambrano - The man they call "Big Z" is on fire over his last four starts, going 31 2/3 innings while allowing only 13 hits and four earned runs with 10 walks and 35 K's. His velocity is back to the 94-95 mph range that we're used to, and while his command hasn't been impeccable, it has certainly been good enough. This should be yet another lesson about the weight that should be placed on stats through the end of May, because Zambrano has already lowered his ERA by a full run just four starts later, and he might even be under 4.00 by the end of June. He's still one of the best starters out there when age is taken into consideration.
