Ricky Romero - Romero tossed his seventh straight quality start yesterday against the Yanks, holding the Bombers to three runs over 6 1/3 innings to keep his ERA under 3.00. The high groundball/high strikeout combination that he's flashing is a bit reminiscient of a young Kevin Brown, and Brown wasn't this good at age 24. I'm inclined to weight Romero's minor league performances a bit less than I would most players because of some of his most comparable players, and I think Romero will continue to outperform most statistical projections going forward.
Brett Anderson - It may have just taken the three extra days of rest before his last start, but all of a sudden Brett Anderson is looking like a budding star. Anderson has gone 14 1/3 innings in his two outings since the extra rest, allowing six hits and one rune with six walks and 16 K's. The control is still an issue, but his velocity has jumped up into the mid-to-upper 90's the past few outings, and as Drew mentioned previously his strand rate and BABIP both offer some hope for positive regression. I like his prospects for the second half (and beyond).
Franklin Gutierrez - Gutierrez extended his hitting streak to nine games with his fourth three-hit effort over that span in last night's 5-0 win over the Orioles. He's walking a touch more than he normally does, but other than a BABIP that's about 30 points higher than you'd expect there isn't much going on here. His power still hasn't blossomed like we expected it would years ago, and he is still an impatient hitter (something that is probably accentuated by playing in a lineup full of them). He's become a useful low-end option in the OF, but without further progress in the power categories he's still just a bench player in most formats.
Melvin Mora - Another 0-3 for Mora, who is fresh off of a 247/293/282 June line. Mora looks done like dinner, and while it isn't common for a player to just fall off a cliff performance-wise it certainly does happen. I clearly wouldn't have him in my lineup right now, although I wouldn't discount an improvement for the second half. Without one his career might be at an end.
Adam Kennedy - Kennedy slapped three more singles yesterday in the A's 6-0 win, and he swiped his ninth bag of the year to boot. With his multi-positional flexibility he's a handy guy to have on a roster, and his 24.5% LD rate renders his .322 BABIP a bit low right now. I'd expect him to even offer a bit more in average as long as he keeps hitting the ball as he has been, and the combination of multiple positions, high AVG, and a bit of steals make him a reasonable option for your bench at the very least.
