"July 2008" Monthly Archives - Page 2

Justin Verlander - Quite a tumultuous ride for Verlander in the first 3.5 months of the season. Recall his terrible start to the season - April = 6.50 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, 5.0 K/9. Since then, he has posted a 3.23...

Mike Pelfrey: I touched on Pelfrey a bit at the start of the month, noting that if he could figure out the command there was some significant upside in the Met starter. Well 2 starts later and 15 innings without...

Rich Harden Sure it was the Giants, but that didn’t make Harden’s NL/Chicago debut any less impressive. Okay, maybe it did (check out the lineup Bruce Bochy had to roll out there Saturday). Anyway, Harden shined for the Cubs Saturday,...

Clete Thomas: Although he has shown speed in the minors, 15 steals in 19 attempts in Triple-A this year, Thomas is not stealing bases at the major league level, 2 steals in 129 PA. He knows how to take a...

Kyle Lohse - Yesterday's outing makes three straight quality starts for Lohse (and 8 of 10, if you're counting), as the right-hander extended his winning streak to eight with seven innings of shutout ball against the Pirates. As easy as...

Nick Markakis- BAL- Hot- Markakis may have ended his 17-game hitting streak last night, but that didn’t keep him off the bases, as he walked 3 times, raising his OBP to an even .400. It also brought his Batting EYE...

David Bush – Was bush dominating or what yesterday? He allowed just one unearned run off of 3 hits, and most impressively, he struck out 13 while walking none. 5 of Bush’s last 6 starts have been quality starts, and...

I have to admit, I was definitely wrong about Jermaine Dye. The All Star snub his his 20th HR last night in a 2-4 effort. I honestly believed early in the season that he was simply having a good first...

Mark Grudzielanek- KC- Hot- Grudzielanek seems to like to collect his hits in bunches. In his last 10 games he has recorded 3 or more hits 3 times, including last night’s 3-for-4 effort and has raised his average to .319....

Adam Dunn - Its no secret that Dunn likes hitting at Wrigley Field and he proved it last night with a long HR to deep center. That gives him 23 HR for the season at a rate of 12.1 AB...

American League 3 Matt LaPorta CLE OF A- Word is he'll report to AA, but Garko owners will want to watch what pos. he plays for CLE. 6 Travis Snider TOR OF A- .313/.371/.469 in June is outstanding for a...

Justin Duchscherer is without question the hottest pitcher in the major leagues right now. He pitched 9 dominant shutout innings last night, allowing just 2 hits while walking none and striking out 4. That is one of the best lines...

First Pitch – July 9th – Value Picks: Welcome to another edition of Value Picks! Last time I checked in we took a look at some potential buy low targets for those owners seeking “value” on the trade market. This...

Runelvys Hernandez: After two decent starts, 6 ER in 10 innings, Hernandez was shelled for 10 ER in 4 innings against, of all teams, Pittsburgh. Prior to those 3 appearances, the last time the 30-year-old Hernandez pitched in the major...

Daisuke Matsuzaka - Matsuzaka has now allowed only one run in his last 17 1/3 innings after shutting the Twins down completely into the eighth last night, helping the Sox to a 1-0 win. That said, I'm still concerned over...

Ricky Nolasco- FLA- Hot- Nolasco’s strikeout and walk rates are close to his 2006 numbers. His K/IP number is .74 this season and was .71 then. His BB/IP rate is .26 now and was .29 then. Does the slight improvement...

Save Opportunities Versus Team Winning Percentage Welcome to last pre-All Star break Sabermetric Tuesday of 2008.  Today's topic was sparked by a friendly baseball debate during a 4th of July BBQ this past weekend.  Living in Chicago, I watched Kerry...

BJ Upton - BJ had a respectable day yesterday, going 2-for-4 with a double and a couple of RBI. The ongoing theme with Upton has been the loss of power stroke year-over-year despite a steady FPI. Last season Upton posted...

Randy Johnson: I’ve been among the supporters of the Big Unit this season so Sunday’s gem was a slight bit of redemption. Johnson was phenomenal on Sunday hurling 6 1/3 dominant innings against the Padres allowing just 3 base-runners, all...

Troy Tulowitzki After a rookie year (.291/.359/.479, Gold Glove defense) that normally would have resulted in a trophy in a non-Braun year, Tulowitzki has to be this year’s biggest fantasy bust. Not only is he hitting .166/.246/.298 with three homers...

Gavin Floyd: I don’t know what kind of life Gavin Floyd is living these days but based on the good fortune he’s had this year on the mound I have to imagine it’s a pretty clean one. Floyd was outstanding...

Jered Weaver – Weaver has posted two straight dominant starts. His last time out he did not allow a hit while walking three batters and striking out six. He unkindly ended up with the loss, though, as he allowed one...

Garrett Atkins is ridiculous. He posted his 33rd mutli-hit game of the year last night as he went 5-6 with a 2B, HR and the game-tying single in the bottom of the ninth. Atkins is now hitting .315 with 12...

Chad Billingsley: Billingsley dominated the Astros on Thursday afternoon allowing just 2 unearned runs on 6 hits and just 1 BB in 8 innings. This marked the third time in the last 5 outings that Billingsley walked just 1, giving...

Melvin Mora: At this point in his career the 36 year-old Mora offers about league average power, 10 home runs and 14 doubles in 294 AB, while his approach at the plate remains steady, 2006/2007/2008 BB%’s of 8%/9%/8% and Ct%’s...

Joe Borowski- CLE- Drop Value- Indications are that Borowski will no longer be the anointed closer after manager Eric Wedge and his coaching staff emerge from a scheduled meeting today in which they will discuss personnel matters. The big question...

American League 14 Jeremy Hellickson TAM SP A- AA is a huge jump and he was hammered for 8 runs in first start there. Let's see how he recovers. 20 Ian Kennedy NYY SP B+ 1 ER in 16.1 innings...

Second Half Rankings Pitchers Edition (Posted 7/02/08)Every season we come across players who unexplainably perform at higher or lower levels during certain periods of the season.  One possible explanation behind the phenomena: second half "positive trends" are due to...

Unfavorable Matchups, American League Dioner Navarro Tampa (15 for 40 .385 CS%): 1 against Kansas City (Joey Gathright), 2 against NYY (Johnny Damon, Alex Rodriguez, Bobby Abreu, Melky Cabrera, Derek Jeter), 4 against Cleveland (Grady Sizemore, Jamey Carroll, Franklin Gutierrez)...

Jon Rauch: With Chad Cordero officially out for the year, Rauch has better job security as the closer. Rauch has blown 5 saves in 21 tries, but has good skills; 8.3 K/9 and a 1.8 BB/9. Although he has cut...

With the half way point officially upon us, it's a good time to look at the production (rankings) we expect from the top 300 position players in the second half of 2008. Subscribing to the regression to the mean...

Prince Fielder- MIL- Cold- Fielder was 1-for-3 last night, but that made him still just 2-for-27 on the Brewers’ current road trip. Overall, Fielder has some severe home/road splits, hitting .311 with 13 homers in 135 ABs in Milwaukee and...

Justin Masterson - Masterson scuffled again last night, walking five in six innings and allowing four runs for the second straight outing. He seems to be finding the adjustment to the majors rather difficult, but some of that is masked...