Mike Moustakas - Moustakas is 3-8 with 3 walks and 2 doubles since being benched Friday and Saturday, but is the 24 year old ready to become the 30-HR hitter that we all envision? He's been quite a bit more patient this year with a better contact rate as well, and he's getting the elevation you'd like to see in a power hitter.....perhaps too much so with the IFFB% above 20 once again, but better that than a high GB rate I suppose. Even though he hasn't become impatient at the plate, it seems to me that he's definitely pressing.....he's made a couple of errors in the field that are very atypical for him. I'm inclined to still be a buyer here, as the power potential is almost Stanton-like (with a much better supporting cast), but I don't think you want to get carried away. He isn't likely to hit for much better than a .250 AVG, and he doesn't offer any speed either, making him more of a one-trick pony in 5X5 formats than anything.
Ubaldo Jimenez - In the first signs of life in quite a while, Jimenez was hitting 93-95 mph yesterday during a 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R performance against the Royals. Jimenez picked up his first win since August, yet he still only fanned four while walking a couple of batters. The GB rate and swinging strike% were back in vintage Ubaldo range, but you'll have to forgive me for remaining skeptical. If you have an empty reserve slot in deeper formats and Jimenez is available, there are worse gambles out there than going with a guy who at one time was one of the best arms in the game, but the likelihood that he's suddenly turned it around is pretty slim.
Michael Saunders - Saunders walked and homered in his return from the DL, and I just want to reiterate how positive I am on the 26 year old this year. He was one homer away from 20/20 last year despite missing over 20 games, and with still-developing power and a seemingly much better approach at the plate during the WBC, spring training, and the first week of the season, he could be this year's breakout star.......if he can stay on the field. I love the upside here.
Dan Straily - Straily didn't have the same kind of results in his second spot start that he did in his first, giving up six runs on seven hits in just 4 2/3 innings to the Angels, but with 15 swinging strikes on just 88 pitches he highlighted why many, including myself, think so highly of him. The 24 year old is primarily a fastball/slider pitcher, posting average control numbers as a borderline-extreme flyball pitcher. He does miss bats though, and at a rate that basically demands that you pay attention. The only reason that I wouldn't be running out to grab him in single-season leagues is that the A's were only bringing him up so that they could rest Brett Anderson ad his balky ankle, and then Anderson ended up pitching 5 1/3 innings of relief anyway. It is certainly possible that if A.J. Griffin or, more likely, Jarrod Parker struggle again this time through the rotation that Straily will remain up and take their spot in the rotation, but it's equally possible that he will head back down to AAA. I'd watch that situation carefully over the next few days, as Straily is a very solid back-end rotational option with significant upside.
Roberto Hernandez - There's a bit too much risk here to just grab him and slot him into your rotation, but there are a lot of intriguing things about Hernandez through five starts with the Rays. The first thing that jumps out is the K rate, which is by far at a career-best level. If you include his last four spring training starts, bringing the sample size to 9, you have the same exact rate, so I'm inclined to believe that this is no fluke. It's likely derived, at least in part, from a greatly increased reliance on his changeup (30.5% of pitches thrown through 5 starts). It's allowing him to be far more effective against LHB than he has ever been before. Sure, a 5.28 ERA is killer, and his command is still pretty shaky, but that xFIP ERA (x denotes normalized for HR/FB rate) of 3.35 gives you an idea of what sort of upside there might be here, and why guys like Jake Odorizzi and Chris Archer are still down in AAA. He's still likely just keeping a spot warm for one of the kids, but Hernandez is intriguing enough to me that I've grabbed him in a couple of my deeper leagues in a spot-start of a role, and I definitely think there is some upside potential here.
