1. Mark Trumbo (1B - Angels) - Trumbo isn't ready to slow down any time soon. With his 2nd HR in the last 3 games, he now has 21 for the season, giving him an AB/HR of 17.4. Other than the long ball, Trumbo's offering is on the weak side. His OBP is still sub-.300 as he has only drawn 19 walks all season. His BB/K is just .24 while he strikes out once for every 4.8 PA. High K-rates makes me nervous about extended droughts of no production. He's gone 9 or 10 games a couple of times this year without a HR, but that's not terrible. Keep running him out there while he's hitting for this kind of power, but I'd like to see the BB/K rate improve for the final two months to feel good about him in 2012.
2. Jeff Francoeur (OF - Royals) - Francoeur had a solid night, going 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI. Month to month, Francoeur has been all over the map. He had a great April, a dreadful two months in May and June, but a nice comeback month in July. August hasn't gotten off to the greatest of starts, as he is 3-for-13 with no XBH. Overall, his 2011 numbers have been respectable, posting a 29.2 AB/HR which is slightly better than his career rate of 31.3. His BB/K is at the best rate of his career at 0.40 compared to his 2005-2010 of 0.28. His OBP has improved at its current level of .320 vs. career rate of .311 and while his OPS is still lower than the first year where he posted an .884 to finish 3rd in ROY voting, its still respectable at .775 (versus a .739 career OPS). Overall, Franceour has proved to be a decent 3rd outfielder and certainly has given AL-only owners a nice boost throughout the year.
3. Matt Wieters (C - Baltimore) - Wieters had his first multi-hit game last night since July 19th. Since then, his average dropped from .273 to .255. Last night also gave us his first extra base hit since July 17th, which is also the last time he hit a HR. Long seasons of everyday catching duty can play a role on slumps like this and we could be seeing some fatigue out of Wieters. Even so, to his credit, he is pretty much right on track with his career numbers, if not slightly better from a HR perspective. The 25 year old catcher still has plenty of time for it to all come together, but he might be settling into his role of being a mid-teens HR, low OBP, serviceable but still low-end fantasy catcher.
4. Adam Dunn (1B - White Sox) - So much has been written about Adam Dunn this year with everyone having a slightly different opinion on his bounceback potential, when it will happen, and why this is all happening to a guy who was previously known for consistency. Rather than rehash all of that, just a quick update on Big Donkey. He certainly hasn't turned anything around officially, but he did hit his 11th HR of the season last night in the 9th inning off of Yankee pitcher Hector Noesi. And in a previous AB, he lined-out hard. So, if you're keeping score at home, he added another K to his total of 139 (ranking him 2nd in the league behind Drew Stubbs) and another HR to give him an AB/HR of 29.5 (off his career rate of 14.5).
5. Johnny Giavotella (2B - Royals) - The next Royals prospect being called up is Johnny Giavotella. Johnny-G will get regular playing time (the local paper says 5 times a week) for the rest of the season. The 2nd round draft pick in 2008, Giavotella is putting up some big numbers in Triple-A. He is posting a .338 average, .390 OBP, and .481 SLG. He has 9 HR, 9 SB, and 45 XBH in 110 games. 2010 was no different as he hit .335 with a .395 OBP. The speed has slowed down a bit after he stole 26 in 35 attempts in 2009, so I wouldn't expect him to be a huge stolen base threat at the big level. Because he will be getting a lot of playing time out of one of the weaker positions, Giavotella can be claimed in AL-only leagues right away and certainly should be owned in keeper leagues. Most people will be focused on the Brett Lawrie call-up for Toronto, but Giavotella will have value as well. Mixed leagues can take a flier for average help.
