Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs - And exhale... Cubs' fans can rest easy that Kris Bryant's to injury is nothing minor and the slugger returned to the lineup Tuesday and went 1-for-3 with his 14th double of the year. It's still unclear whether Bryant will get his first taste of the majors this season, but I have a hard time believing that when the rosters expand that he won't hear his name called. The arguably top prospect in baseball is triple slashing an insane .333/.441/.678 with 40 homers and 103 RBI in just 126 games. He's likely to be the opening day starter for the Cubs at third base next season, so I'm sure the team would like him to get a taste of the majors in September to make his 2015 season run more smoothly. However, money talks and I can see why they would want to delay his free agency years with Bryant being a Boras client and having already started the time clocks of Javier Baez and Arismendy Alcantara. Monitor this situation closely over the next week or two.
David Peralta, Arizona Diamondbacks - With a solo shot in the first, David Peralta now has seven homers in 65 games with a .349 wOBA. This homer extended Peralta's hit streak to four games and has homered in back to back games and has four homers overall in the month of August. While his HR and RBI are both up for the month, his batting average has tanked from over .300 in both June and July to a .242 clip in August. Those numbers can be directly correlated in a jump in both his K% and FB% in August, making less contact and not making as much hard contact as he did previously in the season. You can take the good with the bad for Peralta, but he's no longer providing a fairly empty batting average despite the drop in his batting average.
Justin Upton, Atlanta Braves - Justin Upton has been among the hottest players in the NL over the past few weeks as he extended his hit streak to 10 games while driving in five Tuesday. He now has 80 RBI to go with his 24 homers and is slashing .287/.363/.522 on the season. Over his 10 game hit streak, Upton has five homers, 14 RBI, and has scored nine runs. The hot streak comes as no coincidence to Jason Heyward's return to the leadoff spot, or similarly BJ Upton's removal from the leadoff spot. As long as Heyward is hitting leadoff Upton will continue to have ample RBI opportunities, giving him a nice value boost down the stretch.
Francisco Liriano, Pittsburgh Pirates - Francisco Liriano was shelled by the red hot Braves offense, surrendering 10 hits and nine runs (seven earned) over just four innings. Liriano has struggled compared to his last season, which was a surprise return to his early Twins' career form. His FIP sits at 3.85 which is nearly a full run higher than last season. A big difference in his 2013 and 2014 season are that his walks have just by one per nine, but he is striking out more batters than last year and is getting ground balls at a career high rate. His homeun rate also has jumped in 2014 to 14.1% after allowing a homerun to Justin Upton in the third inning Tuesday. Coming into Tuesday he had given up just eight earned runs over his last 38 innings, so although his start against the Cardinals next week isn't the best he gets a Sunday start against the Reds to finish out next week.
Aaron Harang, Atlanta Braves - The season no one saw coming continues as Aaron Harang notched his team leading 24th quality start while picking up his 10th win of the season. After Harang received ten runs of support (while in the game) over his last six starts, the Braves hung a ten spot on Francisco Liriano to give Harang plenty of room to comfortably operate over his 8.1 innings. He scattered nine hits, but walked none and struck out four as he was able to limit the damage to three runs, two of which came before exiting in the ninth trying to finish off the complete game. With his FIP dropping down to 3.66 he does still have some room for regression and his next start comes in Cincinnati which is not a too favorable start for the righty, but then again coming into this year maybe just a handful of his starts were considered "favorable."
Josh Sperry - @jsperry1991
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