About three to four weeks ago a reader wrote me saying that he was surprised I didn’t consider Justin Morneau a .300-plus hitter this season. I responded that I love Morneau but I wasn’t convinced his .321 season was legitimate considering his very high BHIP. I also went on to say he’d have to prove to me this year that he can sustain a high BA for an entire season. I’m happy to say that so far Morneau is proving it to me. He did only go 1-5 last night but he drove in 3 runs, bringing his total to 50 RBI for the season with 10 HR and a BA of .304.
Justin Masterson suffered his first loss of the season last night but still pitched well enough to grab a quality start as he allowed 3 ER on 4 H (2 HR) with 3 BB and 9 K‘s in 6.2 IP. Masterson has been very good for Boston since coming up to the bigs on May 20th. Masterson has put together 4 QS in 5 appearances with a 2.90 ERA and a K/9 of 7.26. Masterson showed decent ability at AA and was good in his one start at AAA Pawtucket this season but I’m not anywhere close to ready to saying the kid has arrived. However, he’s probably worth a look to fill out the bottom of your rotation in deep/AL-only leagues right now.
Welcome back, John Garland. I said last week that despite his 6 QS in 7 appearances I’m still not a big fan of Garland and the 12 H and 5 ER that he surrendered in 5.1 IP last night shows you why. Garland is simple - he will give up a lot of hits and he will walk a good deal of batters as well. Mix that together with the fact that he isn’t a power pitcher (low strand rate due to lack of K’s) and you have yourself a volatile ERA. He’s obviously a guy who can’t be on waivers right now with the amount of success he’s had recently but if you’re a Garland owner, the time to sell him was a week ago.
Grady Sizemore extended his hitting streak to 10 games last night with a 2-4 performance, including 2 HR and 3 RBI. Sizemore has raised his BA from .254 to .271 during this streak, is hitting .357 in his last 42 AB, and has 5 HR, 9 RBI and 10 R. His season numbers are 16 HR, 39 RBI, 42 R, 15 SB. It’s great to see Sizemore’s BA start to normalize as he’s already having a great power season. I don’t see him slowing down much before the AS break and should be up near .280 or higher by that point.
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