Daric Barton - Barton made his major league debut yesterday against the Mariners, and this isn't going to be your ordinary cup of coffee......Barton may very well be in the lineup to stay. (Incidentally, he went 2-3 with two walks and a double) Barton is panned in some circles, probably due to his affiliation with Billy Beane, and I'll grant that his future value is certainly less at 1B than it was behind the plate. Kevin Youkilis was panned as well, and Barton is, in my mind, a much better hitter than Youkilis was during his developmental stage. The list of hitters that can post a .414 minor league OBP over just shy of 2000 PA while striking out almost 50 times less than they walked is, I'm certain, rather short. The power isn't really there yet, and I guess the real danger is: could he turn into Sean Burroughs? I would say no, for a couple of reasons. First of all, the difference between a minor league ISO of .120 (Burroughs) and .158 (Barton) is indeed significant. Secondly, Burroughs did rely on his plate discipline a bit much, as Barton is sometimes accused of doing, but his batting eye wasn't quite as developed as Barton's is now (Barton had roughly 100 more walks in his minor league career than Burroughs, in just about the same number of AB's). Is Barton a future star? Perhaps, but maybe a guy more like Nick Johnson with health, with a downside of Scott Hatteberg. Is that bad?
Howie Kendrick - Kendrick has been hotter than blazes of late, but so far it's still just an empty batting average (.373 wth three walks and an ISO of about .130 since the break). He certainly has shown that he can bang singles with the best of them, and he possesses a ton of potential for a few years down the road. For the time being, the strikeout every five AB's and the complete lack of secondary skills make me a bit nervous about his near-term potential.
Fausto Carmona - Carmona cruised to win number 16 over the White Sox last night, allowing only seven baserunners (three hits, three walks, one HBP) in seven innings of work in the 6-2 win. On the surface, Carmona looks like Chien-Ming Wang with the ridiculously high GB%, but I don't know that he's going to be quite as consistent as Wang. His HR/9 and BB/9 are a reasonable amount higher than Wang's, and although his K/9 is a bit higher it doesn't (to me, anyway) offset the differences in the other categories. It's hard to forecast someone's best season at 23, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised.....and that's not to say that I don't think he'll be a successful starter for a while. I just expect more of a Derek Lowe (i.e. - not a frontline guy) style career from him, replete with the semi-failed closer turned good status.
Jason Kubel - Here's another of my sleepers for 2008. Kubel has been on fire the past few weeks (353/400/706 in September), and has actually hit pretty well since the break (297/366/492). He's improved in every single facet of the game in the second half of the year: more walks (1 every 9 PA versus 1 every 14), fewer K's (1 every 6.5 versus 1 every 5.2), more power (1 XBH every 6.5 AB versus 1 every 10.4), and even a bit more speed (2 SB in both halves, but half the AB's after the break), not to mention an AVG that is almost 50 points higher. I expected him to break out this year, but he is only 25, so there's bit more development time in front of him. I would certainly consider starting him in just every format the rest of the way, and I like him to be undervalue come March unless he goes crazy here the last few weeks of the year.
Jacoby Ellsbury - I'm not entirely certain why fantasy guys are ga-ga over Ellsbury. I can see the merits from a real-life perspective....the guys that he could be like range from solid to very good (Willy Taveras, Otis Nixon, even David DeJesus). For fantasy purposes though, the guy just doesn't have any power, and he plays on the Red Sox so even with his speed 40 steals is probably the maximum to expect. I just don't see him turning into a Jose Reyes and becoming a complete player....I think there's a greater likelihood that turns into Willie Harris than a CF clone of Reyes, not that that is an entirely bad thing. He'll give you AVG, R, and some SB, and that isn't without value. Without the power though, he's not likely to become an elite player.....or even an Ichiro-level player (half step down).
