Doug Davis- CHN- Cold- Pitching the first game of a doubleheader, Davis needed to eat a lot of innings. He didn't. Davis ended up in there longer than he otherwise would have because of the twin bill and it ended up in a start where he gave up the most hits (12) in his career and his most runs allowed (10) since the Clinton Administration. Davis did have a .333 BABIP entering the game and had only allowed .22 homers per 9 IP. Only one of the hits against him was a long ball. Normally those might be signs pointing to improvement, as is his 3.48 FIP. However, hid BB/9 of 5.01 and his inability to last in games makes it look like more than just bad luck afflicting Davis.
Cliff Lee- PHI- Great Player- Lee tossed a complete game shutout, allowing only 2 hits and walking 2 while striking out 5. It is Lee's third straight complete game shutout. That is awesome but I still have concerns about his workload. He cracked the 110 pitch mark again and his K rates are going down. Lee only has 12 strikeouts in those 3 shutouts. I am not quite ready to put the sell high flag all the way up the flag pole but this is about the highest Lee can get.
Jose Reyes- NYN- Hot- Reyes entered last night's game with a .362 BABIP and went 4-for-4 for the second straight 4-hit game. Regression to the mean obviously hasn't hit yet but I wouldn't want to bet against it long term. Reyes' .349 average isn't sustainable but even if it drops he is likely to give value in the steals category. Don't sell high unless you get a really good offer.
Carlos Corporan- HOU- Rookie- The man who started his major league career hitting 1.000 across his first two major league seasons (OK, that's stretching it a bit- he got a hit in his first major league at bat in 2009 and then another hit in his first at bat this season, his first appearance since that one in 2009) finally got hot again, going 3-for-4 with a double against the Rangers. Corporan is getting plenty of playing time since the Astros catching corps is riddled with injury. However, his minor league record doesn't give a lot of hope that he will be a sleeper. Corporan's highest average with any significant playing time above Class A ball was .290 last year at AAA, but was aided by a.329 BABIP. He also slugged 12 homers in 2010, almost as many as the 15 in his minor league career to that point. His 3 homers at AAA Oklahoma in 92 PAs this year were promising but at age 27, it's hard to expect him to provide that much punch at the major league level.
Johnny Cueto- CIN- Hot- Cueto threw his 7th straight quality stay and 9th in his 10 outings this season. His strikeout rate continues to edge upwards and his walk rate remains low. This indicates that he will remain solid, but expecting this sort of performance for the rest of the season will be tough. Cueto has benefited from a .211 BABIP and regression to the mean will be nasty when it kicks in. Still, even if his xFIP of 3.43 were his real ERA instead of the 1.84 he currently sports, it wouldn't be that bad.
Follow me on Twitter all season - @fantisticspaul
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