Justin Masterson, RHP CLE Masterson twirled a complete game shutout Friday night against the White Sox, allowing five hits and a walk and striking out seven to become the first pitcher in the majors to reach three victories. In 2013, he has more closely resembled the pitcher he was in 2011, when he had a 3.21 ERA, than last year, when he finished at 4.93. The difference between the two seasons was Masterson's BB/9 (3.84 versus 2.71) and strand rate (72.9 percent versus 66.4 percent). We'll have to watch both of those closely in 2013. So far, he has walked eight and given up 10 hits but just one run in 22 innings, so he obviously is stranding runners well.
Mike Trout, OF LAA Trout has a .227 average and 12 strikeouts in 44 at-bats, but he seems ready to bust out. He has hit eight line drives on 32 batted balls (25 percent). However, he has picked up hits on just two of his 15 groundballs this season after hitting .310 on 187 grounders last year.
Rick Ankiel, OF HOU Ankiel had two hits and three RBIs Friday against the Angels, but he also struck out two more times and has a ridiculous 16 strikeouts and zero walks in 22 at-bats this season. Of the six balls Ankiel has actually put in play, two have left the yard and one was a double. His Isolated Power (ISO) is .318.
Jose Bautista, OF TOR Bautista went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts Friday against the Royals and is 5-for-28 on the young season, though he only struck out three times this season prior to Friday. He has been getting on top of the ball so far and produced nine grounders against seven flyballs this year, but he also has five line drives. Once he starts getting the ball in the air 46 percent of the time like he has in his career, the homers should come in bunches.
Mike Moustakas, 3B KC Moustakas went 0-for-3 Friday against the Blue Jays and is hitting .176 this season with zero homers. However, he has a 4/4 K/BB in nine games and hasn't struck out at all over his last six. He had a K/BB of 124/39 in 149 games in 2012. The third baseman has hit over 50 percent flyballs since last year, but we're still waiting to see the power he displayed in the minors, and until that happens, the 50 percent flyball rate is just going to kill his batting average, even if he continues strikes out less than he did in 2012.
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