Rich Thompson- TB- Rise Value- Thompson (not to be confused with the A's relief pitcher of the same name) was acquired by the Rays and made a pinch running appearance yesterday. This was his first major league appearance since 2004. He stole 48 bases for the Phillies' AAA club in 2011 so if he gets a chance to play could provide some help in that category. With the Rays banged up he might get some chances.
David Murphy- TEX- Cold- With a lefty starting for the A's Murphy was on the bench. He hasn't thrived lately in his platoon role, going 2-for-11 in his last 4 games. There may be a little regression to the mean happening as Murphy's BABIP is still at .333. He has only stolen 1 base in 108 PAs this season after swiping 11 in 440 PAs last year and 14 in 471 PAs in 2010. With 3 homers his power is about the same, but without the stolen bases his value as a part timer drops.
Adrian Gonzalez- BOS- Cold- Gonzalez's hot streak has come to an end as he has gone 0-for-7 with 4 Ks in his last 2 games. Today marks one month since he last homered. His FB% of 39.5% is actually higher than last year's 32.1%. However he has 14 doubles in 168 PAs this year after having 45 doubles in 715 PAs last year and 33 doubles in 693 PAs in 2010. It looks early on like a lot of his fly balls are landing in the gaps instead of going over the fence.
Kyle Drabek- TOR- Caution- Drabek continued to have control problems. He needed 113 pitches to get through 7 IP last night mainly because 53 of those pitches were balls. In 7 of his 8 starts he has thrown 14 or fewer more strikes than balls. That is not a good ratio. If he doesn't throw more strikes that will keep leading to high pitch counts which can be very tough on a 24-year-old arm.
Felix Hernandez- SEA- Cold- Maybe that missing 3 mph off Hernandez's fastball really does mean something. Or maybe we are just dealing with a small sample size. Hernandez has been participating in the staff-wide trend of Seattle pitchers to excel at home and stink on the road. He has an 0.78 ERA and 0.83 WHIP at Safeco Field and 4.31 ERA with a 1.41 WHIP away from home. Hernandez dug himself a hole early, needing 32 pitches to get through a first inning in which he allowed 4 runs. He didn't seem to be able to snap back after that. It is the second straight non-quality start for him and if he gets beat up again the next time out it is time to start worrying. If Hernandez bounces back then maybe we are dealing with a statistical aberration.
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