Scott Kazmir (SP - Rays) - Its time to turn your attention back to Scott Kazmir. He begins a rehab assignment on Monday and is scheduled to throw 85 pitches. Monday should be telling if the right quad strain has fully healed or not. If he's able to get through today with no issues, expect to see him rejoin the rotation as early as this weekend. Before going on the DL, Kazmir had a really rough start to the season. He was 4-4 with a 7.69 ERA, 1.95, and most importantly, a drop in velocity. Being the Rays' ace coming into the season, he's still worth the gamble. Maybe this time off also gave his arm a much needed rest as well. ESPN has his fantasy ownership at about 84% and CBS has him breaking the 90% mark. If you're in the minority of leagues that has him available, grab him if you can. There's no reason a proven pitcher like Kazmir should be floating around - he's worth the risk.
Brandon Inge (3B, C, OF - Tigers) - Inge continued his solid season on Sunday, hitting a 3-run HR to bring his season total to 16 and his HR/AB rate to 14.8. Inge was likely grabbed early in the season with his valuable catcher eligibility status, but Inge would naturally be worthy of fantasy consideration at his other eligible positions as well. He's posting a .879 OPS, 0.67 FPI, and .356 OBP. At this rate, the 32 year-old Inge will have his career year. He hit 27 dingers back in 2006 and he hit .287 two years prior to that, but he never had as good of a season as he's on pace for in 2009. With his 47 RBI, he's well on his way to break the 100-threshold, which would exceed his career high by 17+. With almost three months under fantasy belts, its time to start making some long-term commitments to our players. Inge certainly looks like he'll keep this up through September.
Kevin Millwood (SP - Rangers) - Millwood's tremendous season continued on Sunday as he recorded 10 K's in 7.0 IP while giving up 2 ER and 8 hits. He was handed the loss to bring his record to 7-5. He now has 5 quality starts in a row and is 7-for-9 dating back to early May. For the season, the 34 year-old Millwood has a 2.62 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, and K/9 of 5.5. His K/BB is only 1.97 while his HR/9 is 1.10. Those figures aren't as dominant as his ERA and WHIP would indicate and neither is his GO/AO of 0.85. In fact, that 0.85 is even lower than it was back in 2007 when Millwood posted a 5.16 ERA and a lower HR/9 rate <1.00. This is a tough one to figure out other than concluding this is Millwood's "perfect storm" with it all coming together at the right time. The Rangers are definitely playing well enough to give him the run support he needs, but it will be interesting how the long hot summer of Texas affects Millwood in the long-run. I'm in the sell-high camp on this one.
Jeremy Sowers (SP - Indians) - Sowers just isn't getting it done. Another rough outing yesterday yielded 6 ER and 7 hits in just 4.1 IP. In 8 starts this year, Sowers has just one quality start and is averaging less than 5.0 IP per outing (4.92 to be exact). His K/9 is invisible at 4.12 and his BB/9 actually exceeds his strikeout rate at 4.81. Add fuel to the fire with more than a HR/9 (1.14) which, when you're averaging less than 5 innings per outing, equates to about 2 HR per start. And for one final uppercut to Sowers, he has converted way more flyball outs than groundball ones with a GO/AO of just 0.77. I don't see anything positive out of owning Sowers in the short-term.
Michael Cuddyer (OF - Twins) - That little finger issue last week that was supposed to be serious enough to warrant DL consideration certainly wasn't a problem for Michael Cuddyer. This past week, Cuddyer had 21 AB and had 9 hits including 2 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 HR for a sum of 21 total bases. That's good for a .429 average for those 6 games, raising his season average to .277 and his OPS to .874. I've never really bought-into Cuddyer enough to ever own him on my team, but he is posting a respectable 0.62 FPI this season, has 4 SB, and a decent 23.0 HR/AB rate. I'd like to see a little higher EYE (0.55) to raise his OBP (.331), but in the meantime he'll remain as a middle-of-the-road fantasy OF. If he can keep his OPS at .850, I'd consider that a success for him.
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