Yasmani Grandal - The catcher of the future may become the catcher of the present for the Pads, as the struggling Nick Hundley was demoted to AAA, opening the door for Grandal to wrest the backstop role away. Grandal has been excellent basically since the minute he was drafted, exhibiting excellent plate discipline and contact ability to go along with solid power. Obviously Petco Park will have a negative influence on his numbers to some extent, but with a 314/414/498 line at four levels over the past few years, Grandal should still contribute despite the difficult park effects. He is immediately worthy of a pickup in all formats, and should likely be slotted in as a starter in the vast majority of them.
Tyler Colvin - Colvin was in the lineup for the third straight game yesterday, this time at the expense of Todd Helton, and the 26 year old managed his 5th triple of the season in the 10-2 win over San Diego. Colvin has legitimate power and legitimate contact issues to go along with it, but as always Coors Field will paper over some of the deficiencies while accentuating the positives for most hitters. Colvin is hitting 337/375/759 at Coors but just 274/289/384 away from home, although he has improved everywhere during the month of June with increased playing time. It is going to remain difficult for Colvin to garner consistent playing time despite this hot streak, as the Rockies have a lot of cash invested in Helton and Cuddyer, but he is playing enough now that he's a reasonable pickup in NL-only leagues and deeper mixed leagues, and he has enough potential that I'd consider him as a reserve choice in standard formats as well. One injury to an OF or to Helton could make Colvin a bonafide starter in all formats.
Adam Wainwright - It's really been a year of two steps forward, two steps back for Wainwright as once again he scuffles against an inferior opponent, allowing 7 runs on 11 hits to the Pirates over 5 innings. On the surface everything looks like bad luck for Wainwright this year, as the increased K rate and GB rate haven't led to much in the way of positive results. Wainwright still doesn't have his pre-TJ stuff however, as evidenced by his velocity, swinging strike%, LD rate, and HR/FB rate. I will note the fact that his FIP ERA is 1.29 lower than his ERA to this point, but I'm not as confident of that as a solely positive indicator as I normally would be with the underlying issues here. I expect the two numbers to move together, particularly if (as I would assume) Wainwright continues to gain arm strength as the year progresses, but I'm not as big of a buyer here as you might expect.
Luis Valbuena - Luis Valbuena is the de facto starter at 3B for the Cubs right now, and 7 of his first 11 hits as a Cub have gone for extra bases. That's not all that unusual for the 26 year old, who despite his size (5'10", 160) has managed a minor league ISO of .157, and popped 18 homers last year in 130 games. He already has 11 this year in 72 games after hitting one off of Bud Norris last night, and he's hitting 234/265/511 since coming up from Iowa. He does strike out a bit and doesn't run all that much anymore, but he's hit over .300 every year in the minors since 2008 and he does obviously have a bit of power. With Ian Stewart still ailing and with no timetable for his return, Valbuena is a useful pickup if you need power in deeper mixed and NL-only formats.
Justin Ruggiano - For the second year in a row, the 30 year old Ruggiano is getting a chance to prove that he belongs at the big league level, and he's having a much better time of it in Miami than he did in Tampa last year. Ruggiano doubled, singled twice, and swiped a base yesterday in the Marlins' 6-2 win over Philly, and Ruggiano is now hitting 388/474/714 while playing a bit more than half of the time in his first month with Miami. Ruggiano has really stepped up his contact rate this season at both AAA and in MLB, and the result has been a significantly higher AVG than we're used to seeing from him to go along with the usual blend of power and speed. He remains a threat for double-digits in both HR and SB, and with the improved contact rate he is definitely an interesting OF in most formats for as long as Emilio Bonifacio is on the shelf.
