Jim Edmonds
Edmonds continues to be a surprisingly-valuable asset for the playoff-bound Cubs, going 1-for-4 with a double on Saturday. He’s batting a so-so .236/. 345/.479 in 330 at-bats and while the average is a bit of a liability, Edmonds is walking in 15.5% of his PAs and homering once every 13.2 at-bats, numbers both reminiscent of Edmonds three-plus years ago. Batting Edmonds ahead of Geovanny Soto and Mark DeRosa makes little sense, but Lou Piniella is a genius right? The Cubs though are scheduled to face the NL’s top two lefties (Santana and Sabathia) as well as Oliver Perez next week, so it’s safe to dump Edmonds if you need the space, as he’s batting just .152 versus southpaws this year.
C.C. Sabathia
With the Brewers’ playoff chances fading, it’s time to put the Sabathia-for-Cy talk to rest. Pitching on three days rest on Saturday, Sabathia allowed four runs (one earned) on seven hits over 5 2/3 innings against the Reds, his second loss in as many starts after beginning his Milwaukee tenure 9-0. Sabathia was 3-8 with a 4.81 ERA for Cleveland before going on his Cy push, but now that he’s topped 240 innings, perhaps the big guy is wearing down under the weight of enormous expectations. With Manny Parra getting shelled last time out and Ben Sheets’ status uncertain with the elbow injury, the Brewers are 2.5 games behind Philadelphia in the Wild Card race, with their hopes fading by the day. Sabathia has been great this year and will look just as good in pinstripes in 2009, but his ability to pull another huge game out of his hat this year has to be in question.
Rickie Weeks
Getting an increasingly rare start ahead of Ray Durham on Saturday, Weeks was 3-for-3 with a homer, walk, and two RBI in a loss to the Reds. It was Weeks’ first start in a week, but he does have six hits (four XBHs) in his last 12 at-bats with three walks and is now batting .237/.344/.400 in another disappointing season. Ray Durham has an .854 OPS for the Brewers in 95 at-bats, so you can understand the switch, but Dale Sveum has to be desperate now and will likely go with the hot hand on Sunday and perhaps for the foreseeable future. Weeks has actually improved his CT% to 76% from last year’s 71.6%, so although the average is far too low, he brings big game ability to the table and that’s certainly needed in Milwaukee right now.
Daniel Murphy
It’s been a pretty good year for D. Murphys coming out of the blue. David over in Texas and Daniel for the Mets. This Murphy was 0-for-4 on Saturday batting in an enviable position between Jose Reyes and David Wright. For the year, Murphy is batting a robust .359/.430/.529 in 104 at-bats. The numbers are all good for the 23 year-old: 0.89 EYE, .170 ISO, 13.8% BB%, and while two home runs in 104 at-bats is nothing special, he has shown XB power with eight doubles and a pair of triples. So is this guy for real? Probably not. Murphy is a former 13th round pick (2006) out of college, compiling a .290/.352/.444 line in 259 minor league games before getting the call. One good thing for Murphy is that he’s shown a very good ability to make contact (88% CT% in the minors), but he’s probably headed for a career as a fourth outfielder due to the lack of pop in his bat.
Jorge Campillo
Coming off a five start stretch last month in which he went 1-3 with a 7.76 ERA, we had to figure Campillo was about to fade into oblivion. He’s had his struggles this month as well against some tough offenses, but Saturday Campillo allowed just two runs over six innings against the Mets, outdueling Pedro Martinez. Campillo struck out two and walked two in lowering his ERA to 3.76 and improving to 8-7. It’s been a very good rookie season for Campillo, who has now throwing 156 2/3 innings for the Braves. He received his chance thanks to the myriad of injuries to Atlanta starting pitchers, but he’s likely cemented one of the five spots next year. The problem for Atlanta will be in figuring out what other three pitchers to include along with Campillo and Jair Jurrjens in their ’09 rotation.
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