Casey McGehee - What I wrote two weeks ago about McGehee still stands: he has made tremendous strides this year in his power and control of the strike zone...so much so that I'm inclined to buy in. The AVG, however, has nowhere to go but down. McGehee's BABIP should be around .212 given his ridiculously low LD% of 9, not the .312 that it sits at presently. If you can deal with something closer to 260/330/490, then I think McGehee is fine.
Chad Billingsley - Billingsley has been decent but not great during his past four starts, but what's interesting is that Joe Torre has not allowed him to get anywhere near 100 pitches during this run. Torre yanked him after just 90 pitches in the middle of the sixth inning yesterday, preventing him from making a run at his third quality start in his last four attempts. Billingsley has had some bad luck so far this year, with a BABIP that's 50-60 points higher than expectations, but his control and contact% have both been uncharacteristically poor so far this year. To me, the negatives outweight the positives by a bit, and I'd have to guess that Billingsley's slow backslide from an excellent 2008 will continue.
Doug Davis - Davis' peripherals may suggest that he's due for a run of good luck, but after his sixth non-quality start in seven last night against the Braves, I'm not so sure. His K rate has been excellent this year, but it's come in odd fashion: his contact% against is higher than it has ever been. He's only generating 4.9% swinging strikes, and he's only in the strike zone 45.2% of the time, so he's just nibbling constantly and occasionally getting rewarded for it. His velocity is down again, his walk rate is up tremendously, and the fact that his BABIP is about 100 points higher than it ought to be would only bring his ERA down around 5.00. I'm not impressed.
Brett Myers - I see some positive things with Brett Myers so far this year, even though the K rate doesn't appear that it will ever come back to peak levels. Myers is sporting a GB% over 50 for the first time in his career, and with improved control and a much better contact% he's actually been able to maintain an ERA that's fairly commensurate with his peripherals. I wouldn't discount the chances of this continuing.
Tommy Hanson - Hanson bounced back nicely from his first poor start of the year, holding the Brewers to four hits and a walk over eight shutout innings. He also struck out eight, keeping his K/9 at 9.63. K's are up, velocity is up, BB/9 are down, and his BABIP is even a bit unlucky. What's not to like? Hanson is already an ace, and at age 23 he seems destined to compete for a few Cy Young awards...possibly even as soon as this year.
