Pedro Martinez:
Insert foot into mouth: that's pretty much how I feel after suggesting fantasy owners be wary of Pedro a few weeks back. Pedro looked a little bit more like vintage Pedro on Saturday as he tossed 6 fantastic innings at the Phillies, limiting them to 1 ER on 7 hits, while striking out 9. Unfortunately for Pedro and his owners the Mets bullpen couldn't hold the lead and Pedro couldn't pick up a deserved Win. Pedro lowered his ERA to 1.69 since his return and his skills are suggesting it's pretty legitimate. Pedro has struck out 17 in his 16 innings of work while only walking 4. He's building up arm strength and looks good to go with his next start coming against the Marlins (the highest K team in the majors).
Moises Alou:
I really love Moises Alou. At 41, he's posting another .900+ OPS season, his 4th consecutive and is burning it up as the season goes on. Alou's always going to find some tie on the DL throughout the season, but when healthy he remains one of the better hitters in all of baseball. He still has good power at 41, has always had a terrific EYE, and this week gets one of the most favorable schedules we've seen this year (61!). Did I mention he's hitting .391-.417-.717 in September? What's not to like, add him for this week if you're looking for an OF option because he's extremely underrated and still available in way too many leagues.
Jack Wilson:
This is getting a bit ridiculous don't you think? Jack Wilson launched another 2 HR's on Saturday night and after hitting .362-.444-.580 in August, Wilson has somehow gotten hotter in September going .511-.547-.911 in 45 AB's. This is disgusting ARod like production out of Jack bleeping Wilson, I really can't talk rationally about this. Looking out longer term Wilson has made some legitimate strides this season in both his power and EYE rates this season which is important and shouldn't be missed, but even with this absurd 5-6 week stretch Wilson is still only slugging .434 on the year. I have a hard time recommending Wilson this week with the Padres and Cubs (two of the better staffs in the NL) on his schedule, but at this point who knows how long this guy can stay this hot.
Chipper Jones:
I can't get enough of how good of a pure hitter Chipper Jones is. He injures his oblique and misses the first 3 games of this week only to go 5-9 with a 2B and HR in his next two starts. Jones is posting an OPS above 1.000 for the 2nd consecutive season in well over 400 AB's. Yes Chipper gets hurt a lot (has missed at least 25 games in each of the last 4 years), but when healthy Chipper is one of the 10 best hitters in all of baseball, and I'm not sure he gets enough credit for how good he really is.
Brett Tomko:
Tomko gave the Padres an extremely impressive spot start on Saturday night shutting down the Giants for 6 innings. He allowed only 4 hits without walking a batter and struck out 5. This performance will likely earn Tomko another start at home against Pittsburgh. While Pittsburgh has been swinging some hot sticks of late, I'd consider this another opportunity to utilize Tomko for those in deeper leagues. He has a solid K Rate and pitching in that park helps limit his flyball issues. The larger point for this exercise is to pretty much start anyone pitching against the Giants. The Giants haven't scored more than 5 runs in a game in over 3 weeks and at this point are fielding essentially a AAA lineup. This is going to get ugly tomorrow against Jake Peavy...
