Howie Kendrick - I'm starting to see some positives with Kendrick, who put up a 301/342/451 line for the month of June. His HR/FB ratio is moving up, and he's made some huge strides in cutting his swinging strike%. He needs a different approach to consolidate all of these gains into stats I think, because he's still hitting 53% of balls in play on the ground. Still, I am optimistic that he's in the process of turning a corner here, and even though he turns 27 next week I think it's possible that he has 4-5 very good seasons in him yet.
Joe Saunders - Saunders picked up his second straight quality start last night by holding the Royals to six hits and one run over eight innigns of work. Saunders has tossed seven quality starts and three disaster starts in his ten outings.....there has been no middle ground at all. I suppose that's what you expect from a guy with a K rate that low. His control has been improved since the beginning of June, which makes all the difference in the world for a pitcher like him, so as long as that trend maintains itself I would expect him to pitch like a mid-rotation guy going forward, despite the low K rates. Saunders has shown throughout his career in both the minors and majors that he is able to be an adequate starter despite middling K rates as long as his control is intact, so I'd expect that sort of mediocrity to continue given those stipulations.
Kevin Frandsen - Frandsen has hit in 9 of his last 10 games and is batting .337 with 10 doubles in his first 101 AB's with the Angels. He's had an awful lot of luck on balls in play so far this year (BABIP about 60 points above expectations), but Frandsen is a guy that should have gotten more chances by now with a career minor league line of 318/381/452, so it's hard to begrudge him a bit of good luck. He's played mostly 3B for the Halos this year, but with a couple of games at 1B and 2B he could be even more valuable in your league depending on eligibility requirements. He is a handy player to have on hand in deeper formats, although his upside is clearly limited by his lack of power and speed.
Delmon Young - Young is 3-7 with a double, homer, and 3 RBI's so far in the series with Tampa, bringing his line for the year to 296/331/484. He also has 54 RBI's for the season, and he's been on an RBI per game pace for almost 1/4 of the season now. He's made strides in every facet of his game this year, and clearly should be owned in all formats at this point. It's doubtful that he'll ever live up to the original hype surrounding him since he turns 25 this season, but he is still certainly capable of having a very solid career.
Ian Kinsler - Kinsler has gotten hot in a hurry, as in the past week he's gone 10-21 with 8 runs, 6 RBI, 4 2B, 2 HR, 2 SB, and 6 BB with only 1 K. His contact rate has jumped to almost 90%, and the couple of steals this week lead me to believe that he's feeling pretty good right now. I'd expect this hot streak to continue, and for his numbers to begin to revert to norm.
