1. Bud Norris (SP - Astros) - Norris did it again on Wednesday night. Another QS for the fireballer with a 7.0 IP, 2 ER performance that led to his 5th win of the season. That only makes him 10-for-18 in quality starts for the year, but it drops his ERA to a very respectable 3.46 with a WHIP of 1.25. The K totals were low for this particular game, but he is still averaging more than a K per inning for the year with 113 in total.
2. Jay Bruce (OF - Reds) - Jay Bruce finally showed some signs of breaking out of his summer slump. He hit his first HR of July and only his 2nd HR since June 1st. This is after he hit 12 for the month of May and looked to be on pace for his big breakout year. Instead, he struggled through a .217 in June and finally recorded a couple of hits last night to bring his season average up to .260. Jay's lack of consistency is what is frustrating owners the most. In aggregate, he still has a very respectable 19 HRs, .819 OPS, and 53 RBI, but it would be more valuable had it been spread evenly across the first three months rather than mostly concentrated in a short 3-4 week period in May. In any event, hopefully Wednesday's multi-hit game gets him back on track and we see a nice end to the first half of the season that will set him up for a big post-All Star run.
3. Omar Infante (2B - Marlins) - I wouldn't exactly call Omar Infante hot right now, but he is showing signs of life. With a 3-hit game last night, he now has 5 multi-hit games in the last 11 days. Infante is definitely have an off year and a correction in the positive direction may be in the cards. From 2008 - 2010, Infante recorded 991 ABs and averaged a .309 BA, .353 OBP, and a .763 OPS. In 2011, he's hitting just .257, .301 OBP, and a .618 OPS. Infante becomes valuable in many leagues because he has position eligibility all around the infield (he has 2B, 3B, SS, and OF in one of my leagues with loose position requirements). He may have had some difficulty adjusting to a new ballpark, but I see an up-arrow in the 2nd half for him.
4. Hanley Ramirez (SS - Marlins) - Could we finally be seeing 1st round value out of Hanley? I'm liking the odds for a huge 2nd half out of him. Hanley recoded 3 hits on Wednesday, raising his average to .236 on the season. That makes him 9-for-23 this month alone as he tries to redeem himself from one of the most disappointing first halves for first round value. While just about every metric is way off his career rates, his BB% has actually higher than his overall career rate. He has an 11.3% BB% compared to his career of 9.8%. Other than solid BB numbers and a hot July, I'm also encouraged that his AB/HR of 35.6 isn't astronomically in the wrong direction with a career rate of 24.7. A couple of hot weeks and he is back to that rate very quickly. The window to buy Ramirez lower than normal value is quickly closing. You won't get him on the cheap as he will always have that "he was my 1st round pick" mantra associated with him (I hate when people recall values from 4 months ago when making trades). But there is a possibility you get him for bargain value.
5. Logan Morrison (OF - Marlins) - LoMo's average is still heading in the wrong direction. He only has 5 multi-hit games since June 1st, dropping his average from .317 to .258 during that time span. That's quite the drop, but at least he has hit 5 HR since that date. Everything is off for Morrison as his OPS has also dropped from .972 to .811. His patience at the plate has also showed a noticeable decline since the beginning of the year. He has yet to draw a walk in July and his K% has increased monthly from 16.7% in April to 23.1% in July. Until he shows signs of breaking out, he'll continue to have down-arrow next to his name.
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