Trevor Crowe- CLE- Hot- Crowe (who I haven’t seen yet in Robin Hood), is hitting .350 after yesterday’s 2-for-5 performance. He also has a homer and 2 steals in 5 games since being called up. Crowe has shown a trend to take a while adjusting to a new level as he has progressed up the professional baseball ladder. Last year was his first taste of major league ball and it was a struggle. Crowe was swinging at a lot, with only 11 walks in 202 PAs and missing a lot (21.3% K%). So far in his brief second go round, he is walking a little bit more, with 2 BBs in 22 PAs, and making contact more, with only one strikeout. It’s early, but if he has made the same adjustment he has made at all previous levels, Crowe can help in the average and steal departments.
Gil Meche- KC- Caution- After a string of 2 quality starts, Meche was back in Mediocreville, which while an improvement over his early season starts, is not enough to recommend him as a “buy low” player. He needed 122 pitches to get through 5 IP, and while he registered 4 Ks, he also walked 4. Meche isn’t an asset unless he can improve his K/BB ratio, which currently stands at .81.
A. J. Burnett- NYA- Caution- Watch Burnett’s usage. In season’s following those in which he either threw a lot of pitches over the course of the season or had a large amount of high pitch count games, he ended up hurt or with decreased performance. Last season he threw almost 200 fewer pitches than the year before, but tossed 459 more in the postseason. Still, he only hit the 110-pitch mark 11 times, including the playoffs, 4 fewer than he did in 2008, so that may mitigate the raw number of pitches he made. That bodes well for Burnett’s performance in 2010. However, he has already crossed that 110-pitch mark 3 times this season. If he keeps up this pace, his prospects for 2011 will dime, even if he keeps performing at his current level through this season.
Carl Crawford- TB- FYI- With the help of a .298 BHIPx, Crawford has maintained a batting average above .300, currently standing at .311. He has not been helping much in the steals column, however, with only 3 stolen bases in the last month and 10 for the year. This pace will see him with a much lower total than the 60 steals he amassed in 2009. Combined with only 3 homers so far, this diminishes Crawford’s potential as a multidimensional performer and, thus, his fantasy value.
Victor Martinez- BOS- Hot- Martinez may have some regression to the mean going on here. A 2-for-4 last night boosted his average to .234. It would be nice to see Martinez be a little more selective (he has drawn 1 walk in his last 10 games) in order to really consider him back on the right track, but this very recent trend is a good sign and you don’t want to wait too long if you have the chance to buy low from someone who is panicking.
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