Ryan Franklin (Closer – Cardinals) – I’ve been in St. Louis for the All-Star festivities since Thursday and I’ve been happy to see that at least some people have recognized how awesome Ryan Franklin has been this season. Of course, there are no Franklin jerseys floating around (I’ve seen more Fernando Vina and So Taguchi jerseys than Franklin ones), but the fans have definitely taken notice of the job Franklin has done. Heading into the break, Franklin has successfully converted 21 saves in 22 opportunities while posting a 0.79 ERA and 0.79 WHIP. This is after taking over the job on a fulltime basis from a few other experiments that went wrong early in the season. Franklin (and other closers like David Aardsma) just go to show that the right closer fantasy moves early in the season can pay-off. You don’t always have to draft a closer high to reap benefits from guys like Ryan Franklin.
JJ Hardy (SS – Brewers) – JJ Hardy sat on Sunday with a shoulder injury. If you a recall, he suffered another shoulder injury last summer, but manager Ken Macha has indicated this injury is in a different location on the shoulder, preventing him from taking a full swing. Hardy didn’t exactly have a stellar first half of the season. He’s hitting just .232 with 10 HR (one for every 29.8 AB), .306 OBP, and an FPI of just 0.45. In 2008, Hardy’s first and second halves were just about equal, posting an OPS of .828 and .813, respectively. And, in 2007, his first half was pretty incredible, banging out 18 HR before the break before going cold in the 2nd half. So, looking at the ever-famous first half/second half splits probably doesn’t mean a whole lot in Hardy’s case.
Matt Lindstrom (RP – Marlins) – The latest news out of Marlins camp doesn’t have closer Matt Lindstrom returning from the disabled list until August (at best). The elbow issue he suffered a few weeks back seems to be slowly improving, but the Marlins are definitely going to take it slow with his return. Feel free to cut Lindstrom loose. Even though he has 14 saves in 16 opportunities, he also was posting a 6.52 ERA and 1.90 WHIP. As he is eased back into the role, you might be able to squeeze a few saves out of him late in August, but its tough to tell if the Marlins will just resort to a committee situation as they take things slow with Lindstrom.
Mark Reynolds (3B – D-Backs) – No doubt Mark Reynolds had a breakout first-half (.887 OPS, 0.73 FPI, 24 HR at a rate of 13.5 AB/HR). But without question, the one stat this keeps fantasy players (and stat-heads) from being comfortable with Reynolds’ keeping it going for the full-season. He already has 123 K’s, averaging a strikeout for every 3.0 plate appearances and has a BB/K of 0.358. The 25-year-old has plenty of HR’s to go along with that K-rate, but you have to wonder if opposing pitchers “learn” how to pitch to Reynolds more effectively in the 2nd half. I’d put a “hold” status on Reynolds, but I would be shocked to see him repeat his 0.73 FPI in the final 2.5 months of the season.
Barry Zito (SP – Giants) – You just never know which Barry Zito is going to show up. In his previous start (before yesterday), Zito hurled an 8.1 IP quality start against the Marlins, giving up just 4 hits and no runs with one walk and 6 K’s. Pretty dominant. Then yesterday, against the lowly Padres, Zito gets creamed, going 4.1 IP while giving up 10 hits, 9 ER, 2 HR, and recording just one K before being removed. This recent blow-up inflates his ERA to 5.01 and WHIP to 1.41 and now has 8 QS in 18 starts this year. In fact, he only has 2 QS dating back to the beginning of June (7 starts total in that timeframe).
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