Steve Lombardozzi - Lombardozzi is still not to the point where he should be owned in the majority of formats, but the Nats' utility man is basically playing almost 2/3 of the time now and sees his value growing by the week. I expect to see the 23 year old to exhibit more power going forward, and his excellent contact ability should keep his AVG up in the helping range. He has enough speed to swipe some bases too, so all in all I expect him to be owned in more formats than he has been thus far. He is a solid add in deeper leagues already, although his playing time is still on the tenuous side.
Brian McCann - McCann is mired in an 0-14 slump right now, and his season line of 234/316/386 has him providing value at barely above replacement level this year. McCann is still just 28 years old, so we shouldn't really be expecting a decline just yet, and his contact rate has been the best of his career by far. Horrible luck on balls in play has contributed quite a bit to this terrible start, but the power numbers are the bigger concern to me. After looking like a long-term star in his age 22 and age 24 seasons, McCann has settled in between pretty good and very good since, but the XBH totals have dropped rather steadily the past few years, primarily due to a much lower number of doubles. I'd expect the AVG to gravitate upward 30-40 points over the next few months, but it certainly does appear that McCann is gradually declining despite his age, and those in keeper leagues might want to consider valuing him on a bit of an advanced age curve.
A.J. Ellis - Ellis walked four times yesterday against the Angels, showing off the one part of his skill set that shouldn't be expected to deteriorate as the year moves onward. Ellis has shown more power this year via a likely unsustainable HR/FB rate and has been rather fortunate on balls in play despite a solid LD rate, yet in any league that rewards OBP he remains an excellent starter behind the dish. In standard formats, he is still a sell-high candidate for me.
Ryan Roberts - Roberts' value is crawling back up as he's raised his AVG 50 points in the past 30 days. He still isn't running much, which is keeping him from being an across-the-board play, but both the AVG and power numbers are steadily improving as the weather heats up. Clearly last year was a career year from a power standpoint, but Roberts' poor fortune with BABIP was significant last year, and it seems to have carried over into 2012 as well, as he's managed LD rates over 20% in each season only to post AVG's under .250. I expect that to continue to normalize, and while he may only be a 12-15 HR and SB player, he is capable of posting an AVG that is at least adequate on the strength of the LD rates and a career-best contact rate this year, making him a solid choice still in many formats to due his multi-positional eligibility.
Martin Maldonado - Surprisingly, Martin Maldonado has been getting the majority of the playing time behind the plate for the Brewers since Lucroy's injury, while George Kottaras remains the backup catcher. I like Kottaras' skill set more than Maldonado's offensively, as the 25 year old Maldonado has a little bit of power and that's about it. Unfortunately, he's the one getting the playing time, and is thus the only one that has much value presently. If the PT situation changes Kottaras is an excellent value pickup in many formats, but for the time being Maldonado is a desperation power add only, as the major contact issues will likely hamper the AVG category a bit too much in standard formats.
