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 ball while striking out 11 on his way to his ninth win. Bedard improved to 3-0 this month and lowered his July ERA to 2.20 while raising his K/9 for the month to 11.93 and lowering his WHIP to 0.70. The way Bedard has been pitching it appears to be a foolish mistake to not pick up the left-hander.
All Star game starter Dan Haren, of the Oakland Athletics, is having a phenomenal season however despite never really having a horrible outing he hasn't received a win since July 1st. Haren pitched well enough to win in his last start, going six innings and allowing only two runs on seven hits, but he also walked three runners, only struck out three, and received a no decision. In his last five starts, dating back to June 20th, Haren has posted a K/9 rate of only 5.75 versus a K/9 rate of 7.27 in his first 15 starts. Haren has also seen his earned run average climb in each of his last seven starts. Haren's numbers are still very good, it is just extremely hard to improve on or maintain the type of performance level he was at for the first two and a half months of the 2007 season. Haren is probably working through a bit of dead arm and I believe his strikeouts and wins will come back up in the near future. Haren will start today against the Baltimore Orioles.
Buster Olney, on ESPN, stole my thunder on Friday night's Baseball Tonight but Billy Butler, of the Kansas City Royals, is red hot. Butler went four for five with four runs batted in on Friday against the Detroit Tigers and he now has a .431 batting average in July with 19 runs batted in, seven extra base hits, and five walks with only six strikeouts. This is Butler's first full month of big league action so this doesn't establish his value but it is showing that he is capable of a sustained hot streak. For the season Butler is batting .333 with 3 homeruns and 25 runs batted in through 111 at bats.
Joe Blanton, of the Oakland Athletics, has had a rough go of it since his run in with Ichiro and the Seattle Mariners on July 8th. Blanton was one of the most consistent performers before that day and since he has been consistently bad. Blanton lost for the third consecutive time on Friday and his ERA is 6.53, he is allowing 14.92 H/9, and his K/9 is at a 2.80 clip all during that three game stretch.
Kenny Rogers had the reality check that I expected to come, in his last start. Rogers had some control issues and it bit him in the form of a grand slam against the Seattle Mariners on July 14th. Most expected Rogers to get back on track on Friday, but that was not the case. Rogers got tagged for five earned runs on nine hits and suffered his second consecutive loss. Now that Rogers has come back down to earth we should expect him to bare down and begin to fight his way back to normal (6+ innings and around a 3.50 E.R.A.).
