Andy Pettitte - I'm getting a little worried about one of my favorite players of all time. Career worsts in K rate, velocity, and contact% against are hampering Pettitte this season and causing him to nibble a bit more than he normally would, which is resulting in a bit of increase in walk rate as well. This is something that might improve as the weather gets warmer, but it's equally possible (in my estimation anyway) that we're approaching the end of the line with Pettitte. He did manage to pick up his fourth win of the year yesterday as the bullpen hung on for a 7-6 victory, but 12 hits allowed in 6 2/3 isn't going to cut it most of the time. I would definitely be looking around for alternatives, although he may be able to sustain a league-average performance for one more year.
Brendan Harris - Despite hitting the ball on the ground an astonishing 58.8% of the time, Brendan Harris is managing to do what no Twins middle infielder has done in many years: provide league-average offensive production. For the fifth straight year the Twins, as if playing a game against a much younger sibling, are intentionally handicapping themselves by handing over 400 plate appearances to the .650 OPS of Nick Punto, so having Harris actually hit a little instead of watching Alexi Casilla suck up outs like Pixy Stix is a breath of fresh air. Harris is no life saver mind you....league average is about his ceiling, but he can help a bit in AL-only leagues. Be aware: a preposterously low LD% could send his AVG plummeting if he keeps hitting the ball on the ground so often.
Scott Richmond - Richmond's end results continue to impress me even though I envision them correcting southward pretty shortly. The 29 year old Northern League alumnus shut out the White Sox over seven innings yesterday, allowing only five hits and a walk with seven K's. His K rate has been solid at every level of his unique career, but the walks and homers that he typically allows would tend to preclude him from being more than a spot starter in most formats. As Michael mentioned last week, Richmond is being greatly assisted by a lower than average BABIP despite an extremely high LD%, something that will likely revert in short order. Primarily because of this I would be wary of continuing to use Richmond, although as Drew mentioned the K rates are high enough to create some interest. Richmond is a great story, but likely one that will hurt more than help as time goes by.
Russell Branyan - A double, homer, walk, and a strikeout: fairly typical day for Branyan this year as the sole power source on the Mariners connected for his tenth of the season last night. I love the fact that the 33 year old is probably going to get 400 PA's for just the second time in his career this season....it's stunning that seven different teams could ignore a guy like this for so long. His contact rate of 72% is the highest of his career by a large margin, but as Drew mentioned the real issue regarding his overperformance this year is a BABIP of .368, which is about 75 points higher than you'd expect given the number of line drives that he hits. His AVG will probably drop sizably over the course of the season, but the walks, doubles, and homers will provide you with an overall package that is fairly solid for a second-tier 1B.
Kendry Morales - Morales homered twice more yesterday, and although some people may be surprised by the 25 year old's performance thus far I am not among them. The AVG is higher than it will likely finish due to a very high K rate and unexpectedly high BABIP, but the power is real and likely still developing. He's nowhere near as good as Mark Teixeira, something that I wasted 15 seconds of my life reading earlier today, but he could be a solid, cheap option for the Angels at first for a while. Using him at first means that you probably have to find a top-notch bat elsewhere, of course, but he is serviceable and is likely to remain so.
