Justin Morneau (1B - MIN): As with every baseball season there are a number of players that seem to haunt/tantilize owners all year long. Morneau appears to be one of those guys for owners based on the questions I keep getting about him on twitter. On Thursday there were some mild reasons for excitement as Morneau went 2-3 with a 2B, a walk, and the Twins lone RBI on the day. We've discussed plenty of guys that have under-performed this year and mentioned when it would be time to drop them and move on and while Morneau statistically fits into that category, I've been holding and reserving. As I've watched Morneau since his return from the DL, I've seen good AB's and it feels like he's been putting good swings on the ball. The numbers don't really support my eye-sight as he's posted just a 13% LD Rate in August and seen his K Rate jump to over 19% here in August as well. I'm probably being a bit stubborn here, but I remain hopeful. If you've lost patience, the numbers certainly support moving on from Morneau this year.
Jeremy Hellickson (SP - TB): This is frustrating. After beleiving that Hellickson's peripherals would eventually catch up to his performance for much of the season I lost faith and was convinced Hellickson was on the verge of impending doom. A two-start swing through OAK and SEA that yielded just 4 K's was the turning point for me. Unfortunately, for me, (fortunately for his owners) it looks like it may have been a turning point for Hellickson too. Since that west coast trip Hellickson has posted a 7.76 K/9 in his 4 starts since and the results have been stellar. If Hellickson can keep the K Rate near 8, he'll be able to maintain the level of success we've seen all year. I didn't think it would happen after a lack of K's in July, which marked the 4th straight month of decline, but Hellickson's last four starts have provided the hope his owners needed.
Mike Moustakas (3B - KC): It looks like we're finally getting a little bit of a hot streak from Mike Moustakas. The Royals 3B prospect extended his hitting streak to 8 games on Thursday night with a 2-5 effort that included a R and 2 RBI's. During the hitting streak Moustakas has shown tremendous peripherals, walking 4 times and striking out just twice while racking up 4 XBH's in 27 AB's. Overall for the month of August the peripherals are still down a bit from where we'd expect, but the recent hot streak is some mild reasons for optimism. I haven't gone back out and added Moustakas yet, but for those in deeper formats struggling for 3B options its worth taking a shot on the upside while he's seeing the ball well.
Alexi Ogando (SP - TEX): After months of preaching a sell high strategy on Alexi Ogando its finally starting to look like I was right (hopefully you sold on the later side). Ogando was knocked around for the 3rd time in his last 4 starts, this time by the Red Sox. He allowed 6 hits and a BB over 4 innings of work, but thanks to some regression in his Strand Rate and his HR/FB Rate, 6 of those 7 base-runners came across to score. He struck out 5 and walked just one, but the damage was done on 4 HR's, all to left-handed bats. Ogando's finally starting to see some normalized rates in his HR/FB and his BABIP here in August and the results are revealing him as the high 3's ERA pitcher he should've been all season. With some concerns about his ability to handle this workload down the stretch, owners need to be careful when they choose to deploy him. He'll get TB at home in his next outing, which seems like another dangerous matchup given their ability to load up on LH's.
Russell Martin (C - NYY): Martin had a day to remember on Thursday as he went 5-5 with a 2B, 2 HR's, and 6 RBI's in the Yankees 22-9 win over the A's. Joe Hettler had mentioned Martin's propensity for streakiness and after Thursday's big outing I think we can conclude he's in the midst of one of those hot streaks. Martin raised his OPS on the season from .722 to .763 in the one outing. He's been a solid Top 10 C for most of the season thanks to getting residual R/RBI benefits from the Yankees lineup, but the power outburst (now 17 HRs) will push him near the top 5. While Martin was miserable from April on, hopefully you held through to enjoy yesterday's big outing, which marked one of the biggest performances of the entire year.
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