Edgar Gonzalez - After hitting .290 or better in four out of five seasons in the minors, Adrian's big brother finally ended up in the right place at the right time with the Padres and is picking up consistent playing time in his first big league stint. Gonzalez had another single and a double last night, bringing his small sample size line to 328/386/438, which isn't all that far off from his career minor league line of 297/376/447. In deep mixed leagues or NL-only leagues you could do a lot worse, even if the journeyman is already 30 and is picking up his first major league time because of the injury to Iguchi.
Ryan Howard - Howard hit a couple of homers last night to bring his season line to 212/313/463, which is still quite a way from what we've all come to expect. He's hitting the ball on the ground quite a bit more this year, which doesn't explain away the BABIP that's 83 points below his career average but might help with the 60 points or so of ISO that he's missing. The Phils are also facing a ton of lefties this year, which has been great for guys like Chris Coste, Jayson Werth, and Pat Burrell but not so much for Howard. Chase Utley isn't human, so he isn't affected. Howard does have an old player's skill set, so you worry about an earlier decline than the norm, but this is a bit extreme. I'd expect him to continue to heat up as summer goes on, and while he isn't going to make to his career averages he's still likely to offer plenty of production down the stretch. I'd certainly look at him as an undervalued commodity in trade talks.
Todd Wellemeyer - Wellemeyer had thrown six straight quality starts before his elbow acted up, but that streak came to a screeching halt last night as he allowed eight runs in just 3 1/3 innings to the scorching Phillies. Wellemeyer has always had good enough stuff to succeed, but his control has consistently held him back. This year his control has improved significantly enough to give him some modest success, which when coupled with a very favorable schedule and some good fortune on balls hit into play (BABIP of .267) has made him look like an All-Star. He isn't this good, and while he may very well be good enough to be a #3 or #4 starter if the control improvements hold, you may very well get more for him in trade right now.
Sean Gallagher - I'm becoming more and more intrigued with the 22 year old Gallagher, as the low HR rates and high K rates in the minors are definitely the stuff of a frontline starter. The problem, as with many young pitchers, is in the control. The walk totals are high but not insurmountable, but what you can easily see form his game log is that it just takes him too many pitches each inning. 100 pitches yesterday only got him through five innings, and he's only made it out of the sixth once in seven starts despite pitching fairly well. He's still very young, so his pitch counts are being held down a bit...the innings should go up a touch within a year or two. I'd treat him as a #3 or #4 starter for now, but he has plenty more potential than that.
Russell Branyan - Even though it's only been 48 AB's, I find the fact that Branyan is hitting less than 10% groundballs astonishing. The man truly is Dave Kingman with a better batting eye and worse facial hair. This little streak of Branyan's is not out of character for his career, but when it happens in your first stretch of AB's it's magnified. He's worth using as a platoon player at present, but the K's always come back and bite him in a cold streak at some point, so be wary.
