A.J. Griffin, RHP OAK After two straight non-quality efforts, Griffin blanked the Yankees over seven innings Friday night, allowing six hits, walking one and striking out four. His ERA is now 3.79. However, Griffin seemingly has been extremely lucky at the major league level, getting a .263 BABIP across 120.1 innings despite giving up line drives at a rate of 24.3 percent in that span.
Ian Kinsler, 2B TEX If second base wasn't such a weak position, more fantasy owners would have noticed how disappointing Kinsler's 2012 season was compared to 2011. His average was .256 after hitting .255 in 2011, but his ISO dropped from .223 to .166 due to a decline from 32 homers to 19. Kinsler also scored 16 fewer runs, stole nine fewer bases, walked 29 less times and struck out 19 more times. However, the Kinsler of 2011 has returned. After going 3-for-5 Friday against Boston, Kinsler is batting .342 with eight doubles, five homers, 18 RBIs, 18 runs, three steals and a 10/11 K/BB. The batting average won't stay that high; Kinsler has a career .282 BABIP, but he has a .343 BABIP this year despite putting up a lower line-drive rate and a higher infield-fly rate than last season. However, his .202 ISO is encouraging.
Matt Moore, LHP TB Moore had his worst start of the season Friday at Coors Field against the Rockies, walking four, striking out three and allowing seven hits, two homers and four earned runs in five innings. Coming into Friday's start, the lefty had the lowest BABIP among starters in all of baseball at .149. Moore's low BABIP has helped him post a 1.95 ERA despite walking 19 batters in 37 innings. Moore's swing-and-miss rate is down more than three percentage points from last year, when he finished sixth in baseball in that category. He offset that by getting a higher percentage of his strikes looking than last season, but he doesn't have the control yet to rely primarily on called strikes. Moore's chase rate is 26 percent, according to FanGraphs, down from 28.2 percent last season, and batters are making contact on 86.9 percent of pitches thrown in the strike zone, up from 81.2 percent in 2012.
Mark Reynolds, 1B CLE Reynolds cranked his ninth homer of the season Friday against the Twins, and is batting .293 with 24 RBIs in 92 at-bats. And here's a surprise: his strikeout rate is actually 23.8 percent, down from 29.6 percent last season and 32.3 percent for his career. While he'll never be anything close to a .300 hitter, fewer strikeouts means more flyballs, and more flyballs for a player with Reynolds' power equates to more time spent trotting around the bases than walking back to the dugout.
Felix Hernandez, RHP SEA Aside from minor hiccups in his second and third starts of the year, Hernandez has been in Cy Young form, allowing one earned run or less in five of seven starts. That includes Friday night, when he held the Blue Jays scoreless in eight innings. King Felix struck out seven and walked none in the game and holds a K/BB of 51/7 in 50.2 innings. Hernandez has never finished with a K/9 above 9.0 or a BB/9 under 2.0, but that's where he stands right now.
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