Josh Phegley - I feel compelled to put my two cents in on Phegley, who has gone 3-10 with a pair of homers and 4 RBIs in his first 3 games with Chicago, despite the two reviews of the 25-year old in the past week. Phegley is a very interesting case, as the Indiana star seems to have finally gotten a potentially life-threatening blood disorder under control through the removal of his spleen during the 2010/11 offseason, so it's anyone's guess as to what arc his minor league career might have taken in a parallel, healthy universe. Phegley was destroying AAA pitching this season in his second full crack at the level, and the early returns in Chicago suggest that this power spike is no fluke. His aggressive approach at the plate will likely do him no favors in the AVG department, but he may very well provide enough power to be what Tyler Flowers proved unable to be, which is a viable 2nd catcher in most formats. It appears that he has already wrested the starting slot away from the struggling Flowers, as he's started three times to Flowers' one since his arrival in Chicago, so he may very well be worth a flyer in many formats even this early in his tenure.
Michael Brantley - Brantley had a pair of singles and a pair of walks yesterday in a 4-2 defeat to Detroit, giving him 5 multi-hit games in his last 9, and he also swiped his 9th base of the season. Brantley has elite contact skills (92%), has improved his base-stealing efficiency (9/11 this year after 12/21 in 2012), and seems to be turning some of last year's doubles into home runs as you might expect at age 26 (HR/FB rate up from 4.2% to 9.1%). He's moved up into the top-40 of ESPN's OF rankings, yet he is still only owned in just over 50% of their leagues. I don't think there is a tremendous ceiling here, but I do think it's possible that Brantley could be a .290-15-15 guy, which certainly has value in just about every format. The massive number of groundballs that he hits do limit his production a bit, but you can see the slow, steady growth that he's been showing the past four years moving him into a viable lower-tier OF.
Scott Feldman - Feldman had a much rougher second start with the O's, giving up nine hits and seven runs to the Rangers over 5 1/3 innings yesterday. The move from the NL to the AL is never easy for pitchers, and as a pitcher dealing with a fairly sizable velocity drop this year, that decline in swinging strike% might be exacerbated a bit here the rest of the way, first excellent start against the offensively challenged White Sox notwithstanding. I am not a buyer here even with the move to a better supporting cast, and I expect an ERA in the low-4.00's for his Oriole tenure in 2013. His ERA as a starter with Texas last year was in the mid-5.00s, FYI.
Jon Lester - Lester was slapped around by the Mariners last night, giving up nine hits and five runs over five innings, walking two and fanning six to drop to 8-5 on the year. Lester has pretty quickly gone from a borderline ace to a back-end starter, declining in velocity, contact rate, swinging strike%, and xFIP ERA for four straight seasons now. Everyone wants to remember what Lester was, but what Lester is is a guy that will give you around a 4.00 ERA with a solid supporting cast, so there'll be decent win totals and at least mediocre K figures. That's a back-end starter, and at age 29 there's little reason to expect much improvement given the recent track record. Lester has only posted quality starts in 1 of his last 6 outings, and 2 of his last 10.
Brad Miller - I'm not sure Miller is getting enough of a look from fantasy folks, as the 23 year old has hit and hit well at every single place he's been, including a huge 26-game stint at Tacoma this year in a park that actually suppresses run totals, unlike much of the PCL. Miller had 12 homers at two stops this year in just 78 games on the heels of 4 in 40 games at AA last year (it's hard to count stats from High Desert, so we won't), and he's hit well over .300 at each level as well. He does strike out a lot, but he also walks quite a bit, and he offers a bit of speed as well. The Mariners are starting to push some of their young talent up to the bigs as evidenced by Zunino, Franklin, and now Miller, and I assume Montero will return sooner or later as well, so this may end up being a decent offense in a year or two. I like Miller more than most of the reports I've seen thus far, and would be happy to give him a shot in most formats with his high ceiling.
