Ryan Braun - Braun singled and homered last night, driving in 5 in the 12-2 win over LA. Braun has certainly made strides in his plate discipline over the past three years, increasing his walk rate while cutting his K rate in each of those seasons. However, it hasn't resulted in much of an increase where it matters, as his OBP this year is only his third-highest in four MLB campaigns, while his power has been decreasing steadily since arriving with Milwaukee back in 2007. Braun is still a great player, as his 300/363/502 line will attest to, but he appears to have shown up at the big league level fully-formed instead of bursting with growth potential. The continual drop in ISO worries me just a bit, but Braun will likely be able to perform at this level for another 5-7 years.
Roger Bernadina - I still want to urge caution on the 26 year old Bernadina, who has admittedly been decent for the Nationals so far this year, hitting at a 282/351/444 clip. Bernadina's BABIP of .337 is about 75 points high given his LD% right now, and a line of 240/310/400 looks a lot worse than what he's giving anyone right now. He does have a modest amount of power and speed, so a reserve slot in the deepest of formats could be warranted, but no more than that.
Andres Torres - As David sort of predicted, Torres has wrestled away a starting spot (mostly from Aaron Rowand, surprisingly) in San Francisco, and the 32 year old seems to be making the most of it. Torres doubled, tripled, and walked twice last night against the O's, and he's now batting 302/401/495 for the year. He disappeared from the big league scene from 2006-2009, but somewhere along the line (it looks like during 2007, at age 29) he starting hitting for quite a bit more power than he did previously, and without losing too much of the one skill that he has always had: speed. Now we've got a guy that looks like a .300 hitter with the amount of line drives that he's hitting (over 26%), his patience has increased dramatically, and he has a bit of pop as well. I'm still skeptical since he is 32, but he obviously needs to be owned at the very least in most formats.
Pat Burrell - Burrell looks like a new man in San Francisco, hitting his second homer for the Giants against the Orioles last night. He already has 5 XBH in just 27 AB's and is hitting 407/452/741 in that small sample size. Burrell looked completely done in his year-plus with the Rays, but he is only 33 so perhaps there is a bit left in the tank. He is likely worth a pickup in deeper NL-only leagues, and certainly merits watching in most formats right now.
Brett Myers - One of the biggest keys to Myers' success this year has been his ability to keep the ball in the park, and although I do think he will regress a touch in this area it seems that some of this change is designed. Myers' FB% of 31.3% is his lowest in five seasons, and combined with a vastly increased reliance on his slider he has been able to limit home runs to less than a third of the rate that he allowed last year. He is a solid mid-rotational play in all formats.
