Jacob Turner - Things are starting to look a bit positive for Turner if you look a little deeper than the standard categories. Through five starts, Turner is 1-0 with a 1.97 ERA, but he's only fanning 5.6/9 while walking over 3.0. Combined with that wretched offense, he's pretty easy to ignore, being owned in only 7.5% of ESPN leagues right now. Turner has bumped his GB rate up above 50% this year, which has a lot to do with his success thus far, but digging even deeper he has had sizable increases in velocity, chase%, and swinging strike%. Sure, it's only 5 starts, but he couldn't string more than 2 together last season, so I'm optimistic here. I think there is a significant amount of potential.
Jordy Mercer - Mercer is 5-8 with a homer and a steal in the first two games against the Angels, and he has officially wrested the starting SS job away from the cold, dead hands of Clint Barmes. He's hitting .327 in June and 297/345/495 on the year, but is he any sort of a prospect? His minor league track record suggests that he might possess 10-15 HR power and 5-10 SB speed, and those facts alone combined with 2B/SS eligibility make him a worthy option in many formats. The batting average is fairly suspect right now, as his plate discipline is mediocre at best and his contact rates are only fair, although he has been hitting his share of line drives. He basically looks like he could provide average production across the board, which isn't too shabby for a guy that's on the wire in most leagues. He's worth a look in formats of moderate depth and greater.
Travis Wood - Travis Wood is the anti-Dan Haren, tossing his fifth straight quality start despite a mediocre arsenal and a terrible propensity to allow flyballs. Unlike Haren however, who has fallen victim to a terrible strand% and a career high in HR/FB, Wood has a career best strand rate and an HR/FB rate that is under 6%. He also is posting a BABIP of .222 despite a LD rate above 20%, which just adds more fuel to the argument that a day of reckoning is coming for Wood. He gets the Mariners, A's, Angels, and Cards before the break, which is certainly a bit of an increases in difficulty. I'd be a bit leery keeping him in there past next week, and I'd certainly be exploring his value on the trade market.
Dan Haren - Haren was blasted again yesterday, allowing 7 hits and 6 runs to the Rockies in just 3 1/3 innings to drop to 4-9 on the year. He hasn't tossed a quality start in his last 4, and despite maintaining a solid K rate, he's seen his ERA balloon to over 6.00 again. We all know the issues with Haren: he allows too many flyballs, and he allows too many of those flyballs to leave the park. With the worst strand and HR/FB rates of his career, you can certainly expect things to move back in the other direction going forward, but will it be enough for him to be effective? I'm starting to worry that it won't, as although the upcoming schedule is favorable (both the Mets and Marlins before the break), there have been rumblings that he may be skipped in the rotation this week if Davey Johnson doesn't like what he sees in tomorrow's bullpen session. Despite the struggles I'd still consider starting him at the back of my rotation next week against the Mets if he keeps his spot in the rotation, but I'm nearing the end of my leash with him.
Logan Schafer - Schafer is likely to play every day with Ryan Braun on the shelf for 6 weeks or so, and the 26 year old may have enough to offer to justify a spot in deeper leagues, and certainly in 5X5 NL-only formats. Schafer hits line drives with below-average (but not non-existent) power and decent speed, leading me to believe that he could give teams a boost in AVG and SB given consistent playing time. I prefer Caleb Gindl offensively, but the Brewers prefer Schafer once defense is considered, so Gindl will pinch-hit while Schafer plays most of the time. I'd guess that Schafer could offer you 5-10 homers and 10-15 steals playing full time without hurting you in AVG, making him a back-end OF in deeper leagues for the duration of Braun's injury.
