Brad Hawpe
Hawpe was 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBI Saturday against the Dodgers. Hawpe has always had his issues versus southpaws, having lost 204 points of OPS against them since 2004, and again this year batting just .200/.273/.250 against them before Saturday. It wouldn’t have been a surprise to see Hawpe lose time to Ryan Spilboroughs versus lefties, making it a good thing that his homer Saturday came against Hong-Chih Kuo. With just two homers in 93 at-bats, Hawpe has been a disappointment so far, but he does have a 1.00 EYE and has upped his BB% to 18.6. The power should return, as there’s really no reason (injury) to think it won’t.
Carlos Marmol
We know Marmol is ridiculously talented and the best option for the Cubs in save situations, but Lou Piniella’s use of Marmol is downright abuse. He threw another two innings on Saturday and has now tossed 21 in the Cubs 30 games, putting him on pace for a shade over 113 if he maintains this pace. Perhaps Piniella learned nothing from his predecessor’s abuse of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior at a young age or is taking a page from the Joe Torre school of latching onto one reliever. I suppose it has to be tempting to turn to Marmol when the alternatives include Bobby Howry and Chad Fox, but unless Piniella wants Marmol introduced to Dr. James Andrews this year, perhaps he’s be advised to give Marmol more rest. The stats: 21 innings, 9 hits, 5 walks, 28 strikeouts, and a 1.29 ERA. He’s looking like this year’s Rafael Betancourt.
Mike Jacobs
Isolated power of course measures the ability of a batter to generate extra-base hits, essentially taking singles out of the equation as a measure of slugging percentage. Historically, the average is around .120 with a .200 mark being associated with “power hitters”. The three hitters atop the NL in ISO this year aren’t a huge surprise – red-hot Chase Utley, Lance Berkman, and Pat Burrell. No. 4 of course is Mike Jacobs. Jacobs homered again on Saturday, his eighth of the year, giving him a line of .247/.275/.567, or an ISO of .320. 15 of Jacobs’ 24 hits are of the extra-base variety. He’s never shown the ability to be an OBP machine, but even then, a 23:4 K:BB is more than concerning. I suppose as long as he maintains his 40-homer pace that he’ll play, but hitting Jacobs down in the order where his lack of OBP skills makes a lot more sense than hitting him cleanup as he did on Saturday. The Marlins rank 12th in the NL in OBP and second in home runs, so Jacobs isn’t unique even on his own team with respect to those two stats. Ride him while he’s hot, but just don’t expect much in the way of average, though Jacobs’ .242 BABIP does give us some hope in that area. The power is legit however, particularly if Jacobs can maintain anywhere close to his current 32.9% GB %.
Xavier Nady
Sure some guys are late bloomers, but this is getting downright ridiculous. Nady was 3-for-4 with his tenth double and three RBI on Saturday, raise his line to .342/.403/.535. Usually I like to see a OBP-AVG in the area of .070 or above, but 0.61 (21:10 K:BB) isn’t terrible by any means. Nady is hitting for average, power, and his 30 RBI lead the National League. With Steve Pearce down in Triple-A waiting to take over right field, Nady is prime trade bait, and what better time than when he’s white-hot. Nady has a 4:5 K:BB over his last five games and in the last 10 days, he’s had mini-slumps of 1-for-6 and 0-for-7, but followed both up with three-hit games. One has to wonder how many RBI he’s have if not for the Pirates batting Chris Gomez and the .230-hitting Freddy Sanchez in the No.2 and 3 holes. Nady was a career .297/.368/.525 hitter in the minors and was a first-round talent when drafted by the Padres back in 2000, but you have to figure that at age 29, it’s not getting any better than this.
Stephen Drew
With Orlando Hudson still nursing a minor hamstring injury, Stephen Drew was elevated to the two-hole on Saturday and he responded, going 2-for-5 with an RBI. For the year, Drew is batting just .258/.327/.464, but a few things to keep in mind. He just turned 25, a .206 ISO is very good, and so is a 12:10 K:BB. Drew is making excellent contact (87.6%), and his .260 BABIP is a bit on the low end. Perhaps this will be enough to wake Drew up from his slump – 3-for-22 entering Saturday’s action, but we fully expect him back near the bottom of the lineup once Hudson returns, which could be as early as Sunday. Drew probably isn’t going to ever be a consistent .300 hitter, but he has the power and on-base ability to be an above average shortstop as early as this year.
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