Dominic Brown (OF--Phillies) It finally happened: Dominic Brown has been called up. Yes, it seems here at Fantistics we have been keeping a daily watch on the Brown situation with Shane Victorino having headed to the DL. Despite reports on the Thursday that Brown was not a candidate for a call-up, that stance obviously was a bunch of hooey. Expect Brown to have a considerable amount of playing time as manager Charlie Manuel is probably very anxious to see what Brown can do for you, the fantasy owner and the Phillies. Ben Francisco will probably be the odd man out (ironically he hit his fifth home run on Friday) with Brown occasionally sitting against lefties as he did Friday. Brown was batting .341 in eleven games at Triple-A with two home runs and 10 RBI. If he is available in your league, he's worthy of a pick-up for sure.
Francisco Rodriguez (RP--Mets) Francisco Rodriguez picked up his 15th save of the season Friday against the Yankees and is now tied with Leo Nunez for the MLB league in that category. Rodriguez, perhaps surprisingly, worked a 1-2-3 inning and has now lowered his ERA on the season to a pretty impressive 0.76. Rodriguez has been effective although his methods are not always the prettiest and certainly not without their share of nail biting. He's got a WHIP of 1.41 which speaks to the fine line he has been walking and his 2.59 FIP speaks more to his heart-palpitating outings that his ERA. With no home runs given up the season, Rodriguez has been getting the job done. What's even more impressive is that K-Rod recorded his fifth save this past week and seems to putting himself in line for a big off season with this being a contract year. He's been super hot of late and the Mets scrape for runs so his save opportunities could be plentiful.
Danny Espinosa (2B--Nationals) Danny Espinosa had been struggling quite a bit of late. Batting just .194 going into Friday's contest, Espinosa had been batting just .143 (8-for-56) for the month of May. Fortunately of the eight hits he has had in May, six have been for extra bases including three home runs. Espinosa had a solid game on Friday against the Orioles as he went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, five RBI and hit his sixth home run of the season. Espinosa managed to get his average back above the .200 mark to .209. While he's got good power for a middle infielder, the 74.4% contact rate and 26.4% K rate is concerning. He's currently on pace for 150 strikeouts which is a lot for a guy who will only net about 20 home runs. Too many wasted at-bats and little hitting don't make up for whatever power he has.
Buster Posey (C--Giants) It still has been almost a month since we last saw a home run come off of Buster Posey's bat. He has just four on the year and for that matter extra bases in general have been hard to come by for Posey. He finally collected his first one in May, a double as he has a very disappointing SLG of .383. This coming from the ROY last year who pushed his SLG above the .500 in 2010. Despite the lack of power, Posey has been hitting the ball much better of late. He has a nine game hitting streak including Friday which has him batting .419 over that time. Posey is still one of the better catchers in the game with great promise and he will figure out the home run drought soon enough. In the meantime, he should be active in all formats as he appears to be picking up steam.
Ryan Madson (SP--Phillies) Ryan Madson continues to fill in nicely for the injured Brad Lidge as he notched his eighth save of the year securing a victory for Roy Halliday. Madson has been just terrific in this role this season unlike other seasons where he stumbled some and seemed more comfortable in the setup role. But this season he has stepped up and has a 0.50 ERA to go along with a K/9 of 11.65. He's allowed just 11 hits over the course of 18 innings with opponents hitting just .167 against him. Of those 11 hits, only two have been for doubles and he has yet to yield a triple or a home run on the season. Madson has been as good as anyone and is a must-have as he could rack up a fair amount of saves playing for the Phillies.
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You can follow Richard all season long on Twitter @rsgross
