Curtis Granderson (OF - Yankees) - Not sure if its premature to say that Granderson has turned the corner, but he is certainly well on his way to getting his power back. With another HR yesterday, he now has 4 for June with 13 RBI. If there was ever a buy-low candidate, Granderson is the one. He has slowly shown signs of breaking out and has all the cards stacked in his favor (strong lineup protection, favorable hitting environment at Yankee Stadium, etc). Doesn’t hurt to lob in trade offers - I think he is going to have a monster 2nd half.
Zack Greinke (SP - Royals) - Greinke looks to be back on the right track after giving fantasy owners some major heartburn at the end of May and early June. He’s still not nearly as dominant as last year (and at the value he was drafted preseason), but he managed to hurl his 2nd straight QS on Saturday going 7.0 innings with 3 ER, 5 K’s, no walks, and 6 hits. As expected, the win total is low, but nobody predicted he would only have two W’s to his name heading into one of his last starts of the month.
Phil Hughes (SP - Yankees) - It wasn’t Hughes’ best outing of the year, but it was good enough for the QS and the W. He hurled 7.0 IP and gave up 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 H, and struck out 4. The runs came early, with 2 HR by Jose Reyes, making it look like it was going to be “one of those days” in Yankee Stadium. But Hughes settled down and didn’t allow another run and was able to redeem the start. Hughes has been less-than-sharp the last three outings, allowing 11 ER in 18.2 IP. But he has earned Wins in all three of those starts, bringing his overall record to 10-1 with an ERA of 3.17. Aside from a few hiccups here and there, Hughes has been stellar this year and I think he’ll be a 20-game winning when all is said and done.
Chone Figgins (2B - Mariners) - Figgins began the season in a deep slump, flirting with the Mendoza line all the way to the end of May. He is finally starting to rake at the plate, hitting .302 in the month of June with 6 multi-hit games and a .389 OBP. That has led to 5 stolen base attempts (4 successful). While Figgins has improved his average, he’s not producing anywhere else. Of his 19 hits this month, only one is for extra bases (a double) and despite a high OBP, he has only scored 5 times. Figgins remains valuable because of his multiple position eligibility, his SB, and his average, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like you’ll be getting much else out of him in 2010.
Carlos Pena (1B - Rays) - Talk about streaky. After going on that tremendous HR streak in June to bring his home run totals back in line with previous seasons, Carlos Pena is now slumping with the long ball again. His last HR was on June 12th which was over 22 AB ago (and more importantly, in the previous week-to-week scoring period). Looks like this is going to be Pena’s “M.O.” for the remainder fo the year. You can certainly work through it in roto leagues, but it will become increasingly frustrating in weekly H2H leagues.
