Derrek Lee blasted his 9th HR of the season yesterday afternoon as he continues his bid to hit 40+ bombs in 2008. Lee’s totals now read 9/25/.322 and his indicators right now are pretty similar to those in his 46-homer 2005 campaign. His BB/K is an even 1.00 (19/19) vs. a .78 in 2005, his OPS is at .978 vs. 1.080 and his BHIP is slightly higher at .265 in comparison to .259 in 2005. Lee has never had an inordinately high BHIP like you see with some high AVG hitters, but he still has a BA consistently above .300. I don’t see his BA dipping anywhere below .310 for any extended period of time this season and he looks locked in as one of the leagues biggest power hitters this year.
For as good as Haren was yesterday, Ted Lilly was that much better. Lilly was fantastic as he improved to 3-4, fanned 10 batters in 7 IP while allowing only 1 ER on 3 H. The 3-hitter marks Lilly’s third straight quality start for the Cubs and he has lowered his ERA from 7.30 to 5.24. Lilly finished 2007 with an FPI of 1.70 but before yesterday that category had not broken 1.00. I know of some managers that lost patience with Lilly in April and unloaded him so you might want to scour the waiver wires to see if he’s available. He’s certainly worth a pickup now that he’s back on track.
Pat Burrell is having a very good and very interesting year. I said earlier in the season that I didn’t think Burrell had turned a corner as far as patience at the plate is concerned given the fact that he is 32 years old, but I may have been wrong. Burrell’s BB/K last year was .95, easily the highest of his career. He also struck out a career low 120 times. Although 120 is still a pretty big number he at least kept up in the BB department. This season has been more of the same and even better. Burrells’ BB/K after his 3 BB performance last night is now 1.03. His BHIP is below .250 and his Ct rate is only 76% but his ISO is an astounding .322. He has collected 11 2B and 9 HR as well as 30 RBI. This says to me that while he’s not making contact as much as he should for a .300-plus batting average, he’s killing the ball when he is making contact. Burrell’s BA has dropped from .349 to .303 in his last 11 games, mainly due to a raise in K’s, but I actually don’t believe that will continue. Normally this would be a point that I’d say he’s about to hit a very bad slump and get back near his career .259 BA. However, his newfound patience at the dish will allow him to keep his average up when he’s going through cold stretches like this. In addition, his average will spike when he gets hot again. Burrell is no longer a waiver player in my opinion; I believe this is the year he finally shows us what he’s fully capable of doing.
Lance Berkman is absolutely pulverizing the ball right now. Berkman went 3-4 last night against with Dodgers with a 2B, HR, 2 RBI and 2 R. The multi-hit performance extends his hitting streak to 8 games and it is also his 6th straight multi-hit game. He’s hitting an eye-popping .625 during this hit streak and his season numbers are astounding - .380/12/35 along with a .449 OBP and 1.201 OPS. Although we all know he is a great hitter, you might be thinking that a fortunate BHIP is helping him to his high BA. Wrong. Berkman’s BHIP is only .247 right now, which is below his .253 average over the last 3 years. However his BB/K is an awesome 1.33 and his K% is at 12% (10% lower than what he finished with in 2007. Another amazing thing about his start so far - he has 6 SB. This guy is easily the best player in all of baseball right now.
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