Jose Reyes
Reyes is mired in a 6-for-38 slump and although you certainly won't be benching him (don't) at this point in the season, you have to wonder if all that running (92 stolen base attempts, 74 successful - 80.4%) has worn him down. Reyes' .292 AVG is down from last year's .300, and the homers are down from 19 to 10, but there are some very encouraging signs here outside of the stolen bases. His EYE has taken another jump, this time to a lead-off worthy 1.03 while his .365 OBP would be a career high. At 29 doubles, Reyes is just one off last year's numbers, so it may be that a few of the homers are just turning into doubles, something that can easily reverse itself in future years. It is noteworthy that Reyes is hitting more groundballs this year (1.07 G/F, 1.36+ in 2005 and 2006), so more grounders should equal more hits but fewer home runs. So, while the power may be down, there's nothing to suggest here that he won't remain the league's premier leadoff man for the next several years.
Carlos Gomez
With Shawn Green providing little offensively and Lastings Millidge in a 7-for-35 skid, don't forget about Carlos Gomez if you need a few steals down the stretch. Gomez is going to rehab in Triple-A for their playoff run and could return to the Mets any day. With Moises Alou also a chronic injury risk, there should some playing time available for Gomez in September, especially if the Mets choose to rest some of their veterans for the playoffs. Gomez has just a .656 OPS this year in 108 at-bats for the Mets, but that came with nine stolen bases. He's probably not ready, at age 21, for full-time major league duty, but if you're looking for some short-term help, keep an eye on his rehab.
Miguel Montero
As a trendy pre-season sleeper, Montero has disappointed a lot of fantasy owners with his sporadic playing time and .227/.292/.407 batting line, but there's still some things to like here. Montero homered twice on Wednesday and in his other start the preceding Friday had a two-run homer and a single in four at-bats. With 194 at-bats, if you project his HR/RBI totals over a nearly-full season of 425 at-bats, you get 22 home runs and 77 RBI, something not many catchers reach. He's walking at a pretty good clip (7.8% BB/PA) and boasts a solid 83.5% contact rate. Chris Snyder has an .883 OPS in the second half so there would appear to be no reason for giving Montero more at-bats in a pennant race, but a few more games like Wednesday could boost his value some.
Andre Ethier
Ethier's dramatic game-winning pinch-homer on Thursday against the Cubs' Ryan Dempster just highlights one of the reasons why the Dodgers won't make the playoffs this year. Ethier isn't a slugger by any means, but he's young, has an .827 OPS after the All-Star break, and he can actually move in the field. The 40 year-old Luis Gonzalez? .651 OPS after the break and can't field a lick. The fact that Gonzalez was actually hitting cleanup (he went 0-for-4) is just mind-boggling. Anyway, hopefully this serves to get Ethier even more starts down the stretch. He does have 15 more at-bats than Gonzalez since the break, but ideally, that number would be more like 50.
James Loney
Loney fell a triple short of the cycle in four at-bats on Thursday against the Cubs in raising his line to .314/.378/.478. You have to wonder where he (and the Dodgers) would be now if the team hadn't elected to give most of the first base at-bats to Nomar Garciaparra in the first half, but what's done is done I suppose. Loney now has multi-hit games in five of the last eight and his average is now the highest it's been since August 14. It's been even better to see him drive the ball more lately, as he's chalked up five XBH's in his six games this month after having an equal number of XBH's in the entire month of August. Hopefully the power surge continues, as Loney's numbers in other areas we like to look at are strong as well: 0.61 EYE and an 85.9% contact rate. To think, he's still just 23, leaving plenty of time to develop 20-homer power.
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