Marlon Byrd - Byrd was the hero last night with a walk-off grand slam against the Yanks, bringing his post-All Star break line to 283/406/528 in nearly every-day play. Byrd is posting career highs in walk rate, K rate (in the good way, not the bad way), and ISO this season, and should be starting deeper leagues at this point. I know we have a wealth of major league data that says that Byrd is no better than a fourth OF, but keep in mind that this is a guy with a career minor league line of 309/378/518. He hasn't translated his power to the bigs in numerous opportunities, but it clearly exists. Byrd is one of those guys that is better than you think, but continuing to get the playing time is an issue in Texas, where they have about six guys for four spots between OF and DH. Byrd should be limited to deeper leagues and AL-only leagues at this point, but he does have some upside.
Clay Buchholz - Buchholz dropped to 0 for 8 in quality starts since April with a 6 IP, 4 ER performance against the Royals last night. The primary culprit is his control, as the 25 walks in 41 innings in those eight outings translate to about 5 1/2 walks per nine. The K rate and velocity are there, and a .364 BABIP isn't helping him any, so you've got to think that he's a minor adjustment away from being a very solid rotation piece. I'd almost hope that he doesn't put it together the rest of this season so I can try and pick him up as cheaply as possible over the offseason....I still think he is going to be an ace-level talent.
Paul Konerko - It appears that the acquisition of Ken Griffey Jr. will result in a substantial loss of playing time for the White Sox captain, which frankly is a stunning development regardless of how poorly Konerko had been playing. Konerko has shown every sign off falling off the cliff here at age 32, but I'm sure some people were trying to hang on and hoping for an end-of-season resurgence. It'll be hard for that to happen when he's only playing against left-handers, so it might actually make sense to cut bait on a guy coming off of four straight 30+ homer seasons. If you're going to hang on, he only needs to be in the lineup against lefties for now.
Joe Saunders - Saunders continues to defy analysis, posting his ninth straight start allowing three earned runs or fewer despite not fanning more than five batters in any start this season. A .246 BABIP and a 78% strand rate are helping him, but a ridiculously low LD% allowed of 13.4 and a steadily improving walk rate are also in evidence. He's not likely to ever approach this level of success again, but being a consistent #4 starter is well within his capabilities.
Anthony Reyes - The Tribe doesn't need a fifth starter until the middle of next week, so Reyes is getting another turn or two down in AAA right now, but all signs point to him coming up and contributing rather soon. Reyes clearly needed a change of scenery, and although his problems with the long ball aren't going to go away with the move to the AL, he still has plenty of potential. Reports from his last AAA start were that his velocity was in the 92-94 range throughout the game, which would mean that he has rediscovered the 2-3 mph that vanished the past few seasons. I would certainly look at picking him up when he is brought to Cleveland, although I'd stop short of slotting him right into the lineup.
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