Rich Hill- CHN- Hot- Yesterday Hill went 7 innings and gave up only 1 run on 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 6. Unfortunately he was a victim of lack of support, as he has been many times this season, and ended up with a no decision. Hill's ERA since the All Star Break has been a solid 2.64, but the aforementioned lack of support, combined with some short outings, has left him with a 1-0 record in 5 starts. Hill has been very inconsistent since a run of 5 out of 6 quality starts to begin the year. Since then, only 7 of his 16 starts have been of the quality variety. You aren't going to know what you will get out of Hill at this point in any given start. It's tough to put someone in your lineup with that kind of uncertainty.
Eric Patterson- CHN- Rookie- The younger brother of Corey Patterson could make his major league debut after being called up to fill the roster spot of the injured Alfonso Soriano. Patterson was hitting .298 with 14 homers for AAA Iowa. Although he will probably play the outfield, Patterson's eventual role with the Cubs will likely be at 2B. Speed is a big part of his game, although his steals have dropped off from 46 in 138 minor league games in 2006 to 16 in 111 games this year. Lou Piniella is not afraid to turn his players loose on the basepaths, so Patterson could still provide some help in the stolen base column in the short term.
Josh Fogg- COL- Hot- Fogg made his 4th start since the All Star Break and he continued to perform well, even though this was his first outing in that span at Coors Field. Fogg gave up 2 runs on 2 solo homers in 7 innings, yielding a total of 6 this and a walk while striking out 2. His post-Break ERA now stands at 2.52. How well he continues to tame the Coors beast will have a large impact on his numbers the rest of the way. This stretch may not be representative of what he is going to do since not only has he had only 1 home start, but two of the others were at Florida and Washington, very pitcher-friendly venues. This is probably skewing Fogg's numbers in his direction.
Edwin Bellorin- COL- Rookie- Edwin Bellorin takes over the backup catcher role from Chris Ianetta. Bellorin showed a marked improvement in Batting EYE as he went from .24 at AAA Las Vegas in the Dodgers' system in 2006 to .59 for AAA Colorado Springs at the time of his promotion. Bellorin will get a couple of starts each week and if you have daily transactions you may be able to take advantage of them. That's still not much production at the price of tying up a roster spot. If Yorvit Torrealba starts wearing down from the heaviest workload in his career, however, and Bellorin has carried some of his AAA success to the majors, Bellorin's value will increase substantially.
Wandy Rodriguez- HOU- Hot- Rodriguez was home so that meant a crazy good start for him. In fact, it was his second best of the season as he gave up a run in 8 innings on 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 9. It puts even more "extreme"into his extreme home/road splits. Rodriguez is now 6-2 with a 1.69 ERA and 0.91 WHIP in Minute Maid Park while 1-8 with an 8.16 ERA and 1.73 WHIP on the road. He does strike batters out with some consistency wherever he is, notching 65 Ks in 74-2/3 home innings and 51 in 57-1/3 on the road. At this point, whatever the reason, it pays to start Rodriguez when he is home and avoid him away.
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