Prince Fielder- MIL- FYI- For the first time in 5 games, Fielder wasn't walked and he hit a homer. His last 3 homers have come in games where he didn't have a BB. It looks like teams are careful with him and when they take a chance they pay. Fielder is only 3-for-21 in his last 6 games, but has also drawn 6 walks in that span. Despite being walked 18 times in August, Fielder has hit 5 homers. If they pitched to him more he'd hit more, but it seems like teams will try to test their luck often enough to give him his opportunities. If you are in an OBP league, this shifts Fielder's value slightly from the homer category but adds a lot to his OBP worth.
Alfonso Soriano- CHN- Hot- Soriano went 2-for-4 with a double and 4 RBI last night. He has gone 5-for-14 with 2 homers over his last 4 games. Soriano has had these short hot streaks but overall his season has been lackluster. He has suffered from bad luck, with a .270 BABIP, but his batting EYE plunge to .20 (and only .08 in his last 13 games) has done a great deal of damage to his productivity.
Yadier Molina- STL- Hot- Molina only has 7 hits in his last 8 games, but 4 of them were homers and he went 2-for-4 in each of his last 2 games. After having GB% of over 50% in each of the last 2 seasons he is down to 44.1% this year. His HR/FB ratio has jumped to 9.7% in 2011. However, his Batting EYE has dropped to what would be a career low of .61 if that's where it stays. It looks like Molina is enjoying a career year and shouldn't be expected to produce at this level next season.
Brad Lincoln- PIT- Hot- Lincoln tossed 6 shutout innings against the Cardinals and needed only 79 pitches to do it. He is vying for a 2012 rotation slot and performances like this will definitely help. When Lincoln was called up last year, then-pitching coach Joe Kerrigan decided to mess with Lincoln's mechanics and the results were a disaster. Lincoln seems to have put himself back together under new coach Ray Searage, who he worked with in the minors. Lincoln has 3 quality starts in his 3 major league starts this season and will be a player to watch when next year's draft comes around.
Kevin Millwood- COL- FYI- Millwood had another decent start yesterday, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and a walk while striking out 2 in 5.1 IP. In his 4 starts since Colorado signed him, Millwood has a BABIP of .253, so even his relative success at this point (4.26 ERA) is subject to negative regression to the mean.
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