Chris Carter:
Daric Barton went down Sunday with left shoulder spasms and the A’s immediately removed top 1B/OF prospect Chris Carter from a AAA game with Sacramento. Carter’s hit .262/.369/.532 in the PCL this season while racking up 27 HR’s and a whopping 124 K’s in 112 games. He’s in the mold of a Mike Stanton type with tremendous raw power and a good BB Rate, but struggles to make contact. We’ll await word on Barton’s injury but if promoted Carter should make an immediate impact in AL Only leagues thanks to the immense power. Mixed league owners can put in a speculative pickup or claim but like Stanton it may take some time to adapt to major league pitching.
Matt LaPorta:
LaPorta went 3-4 with his 7th HR of the season on Sunday and he appears to be turning it on for a big close to the season. He’s picked up 4 XBH’s in the last 8 games and posted a stellar 4:2 BB:K Ratio as well. Early in the season LaPorta was struggling making contact and generating power, but he’s taken nice strides towards correcting both those issues in July and August. After posting a 44% FB Rate in July, he’s up to 46% again in August and the XBH’s are starting to follow. With improved contact, better plate discipline, and more fly balls, LaPorta has a chance to put together a monstrous final 2 months in line with his great minor league career .296/.390/.563.
Miguel Cabrera:
Cabrera owners might want to start thinking about “selling high”. While I’d argue there hasn’t been a better hitter in baseball all season, the injuries within the Tigers lineup have left Cabrera as the last man standing. As a result teams just aren’t pitching to him anymore. Take a look at Cabrera’s walk totals by month through July: 13-10-14-15, pretty consistent. Well in the first 8 days of August, Cabrera’s already racked up 10 BB’s. The bat is clearly being taken out of his hands and without a supporting cast around him to make opponents pay, Cabrera isn’t going to see any change to this strategy. The result: just 2 Runs and 2 RBI’s in the fist 8 August games. Few players in baseball are as skilled as Cabrera with the bat, but with no other threats in the lineup, opposing teams simply aren’t going to let him show off his skills.
Brandon Morrow:
In the year of the pitcher we have had the most dominant of all on Sunday. It wasn’t a perfect game, it wasn’t even a no-hitter. Brandon Morrow had his no-hit bid clipped by a hard-hit ground ball to the left of 2B Aaron Hill that scooted by him into RF, but he recovered and finished off his complete game shutout with his 17th strikeout of the game on his 137th pitch. For a guy who has struggled with command all season long, Morrow was sharp throwing 97 of his 137 pitches for strikes. We’ve been touting Morrow all season long in large part thanks to Mike Leone’s good work. I came around after he started to show signs of improved command in early June. His K Rate has been the best in the AL all season and since the start of June he’s turned a corner with his command. He’s walked more than 3 in a start just once and has posted a solid 2.94 BB/9. The improved command hasn’t come at the sacrifice of a brilliant K Rate (10.88 K/9) and quietly he’s become an elite SP (3.20 ERA, 1.19 WHIP). Mike was on him early and if you didn’t benefit from his advice back in May, hopefully you took it seriously when the rest of us hopped on Mike’s bandwagon in June. Morrow’s a front-line SP now that’s improved the command. That’s the good news; the bad news is Morrow’s CG on Sunday put him at 127 IP for the season, which just surpasses the 124 IP he combined for last season at AAA and the majors. The Blue Jays will almost certainly limit Morrow down the stretch and if they follow the Verducci Rules we’ll likely only see 4 more starts from Morrow before he’s shelfed. That would get us through the rest of the month, with an early September shutdown likely. He should be owned everywhere while he’s pitching, but fantasy owners need to be prepared to finish the season without him.
Brian Duensing:
Duensing turned in his 3rd straight quality start and his 4th consecutive start of allowing 3 ER’s or fewer since being promoted to the rotation. He’s faced a pretty favorable schedule that includes KC, BAL, CLE and TB but to his credit has posted a 3.30 ERA and 1.22 WHIP. He’s posted a middling 11:5 K:BB Ratio in those 24 1/3 innings, but continues to generate plenty of ground balls getting 42 ground outs in those 4 starts. While his performance has been aided by a .250 BABIP and 85% LOB% this season, Duensing can fill the role of back-end starter thanks to his good command and great GB (53%) combo. Fantasy owners will want to be careful as there is regression in the future, but as a spot-start option in mixed formats and a back-end option in AL Only leagues, he makes some sense. He’ll get Oakland at home which should make for another favorable matchup.
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