1. Geovany Soto (Catcher - Cubs) - Soto has been pretty inconsistent all year and his .220 average in August isn't helping much either. He has, however, been on a bit of power surge with 4 HR and 9 RBI this month, raising his SLG from .405 to .423 in about 3 weeks. Still, Soto is having his worst season (or at least a close 2nd to 2009) at the plate. His OBP of .321 is a career low and his AB/HR of 24.9 is respectable for a catcher, but still not the 18.5 he had last year or the 21.5 from 2008. Because catcher is probably the weakest position in fantasy, Soto remains serviceable in all leagues, but he's on the fringe.
2. Stephen Strasburg (SP - Nationals) - Nobody thought it was going to be smooth sailing back to his dominant form that we saw last year. In his first hurdle since beginning rehab, Strasburg threw 49 pitches through 1.2 IP and allowed 5 ER, 4 H, and 2 BB. He also recorded 3 K's. While he wasn't as sharp as he had been in previous outings, his fastball was still reaching 96 to 99 mph, which is the best sign that his velocity is still consistently where it was before Tommy John surgery. It is still possible we see Strasburg at the big league level in early September, evidenced by an increase in non-keeper fantasy ownership over the last couple of weeks. He will likely replace Jordan Zimmerman, who is on an innings limit for the year as he recovers from his 2009 Tommy John surgery.
3. Nate Eovaldi (SP - Dodgers) - I've seen Nate Eovaldi added and dropped in tons of leagues over the last couple of weeks. His transaction velocity, in my small sample, in daily leagues has been very high. Fantasy owners like him for pitch-and-ditch purposes, but not enough to keep him around. Perhaps last night's start changed all of that. He hurled his 2nd straight quality start with a 6.0 IP, 2 ER performance against the red hot Brewers, but still earned the loss. He has allowed 2 ER in two of his starts and hurled 6.0 shutout innings in his previous start against the Astros. The rookie has looked good and while the strikeouts have been all over the place (7 in his first game, but only 3 K's and 2 K's since then), he should be good for a decent amount of K's as he was averaging just under 1.0 K/I at Double-A Chattanooga. He'll be a two-start pitcher against the Cardinals and the Rockies next week.
4. Aramis Ramirez (3B - Cubs) - Ramirez continued his red-hot August with his 4th straight multi-hit game and his 8th of the month. He hit his 4th HR of August to give him 23 total for the year. If you try to name the elite offensive fantasy 3B, Aramis may be left off, but recognize that he is now flirting with .300 (.297 for the year), is posting an AB/HR of 20.2 (in line with his career rate of 19.8), and of MLB third basemen that have played in 100 games or more, ranks second in OPS behind Kevin Youkilis.
5. Johnny Cueto (SP - Reds) - Who knew that Johnny Cueto would have the lowest ERA of all starters with 125 IP or more. The other more recognizable names of Jered Weaver, Justin Verlander, Josh Beckett, and Roy Halladay (the next four) all have at least 150 innings to their name, but an 8.0 IP, 1 ER win against Washington now puts him right in the mix. In 19 starts this season, Cueto has only allowed more than 3 ER once (two starts ago) against the Cubs (one of the worst teams in the league). It feels like Cueto is a big-time K guy, but he really isn't. Sure he posted an 8.2 K/9 in his first season with the Reds in 2008, but in the subsequent two years he posted just 6.9 and 6.7. This year, that rate has dropped even more at 5.8, but the key to his success has been his very effective GO/AO of 1.54 vs. previous seasons all under 1.00.
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