Alex Colome - It's hard to judge a guy on a start against the punchless Yanks right now, but Colome was rather efficient through 6 2/3 on Monday, scattering 6 hits and a walk while striking out 4. The 1 walk is particularly reassuring, as the knock on Colome was always on his control, not his raw stuff. Colome is just 24 years old and has 4 potential plus pitches, so with some further refinement on his control he could certainly offer some enticing upside. He could be a nice sleeper in many formats come spring, depending on how the Tampa rotation shakes out over the winter.
Colby Rasmus - Rasmus has made only one start this month as the Jays have completely soured on him, and as he heads to free agency, it's worth thinking about what kind of value he might have. Rasmus is a very streaky hitter with some deteriorating contact numbers (from already poor levels), good power, and a bit of speed. He's somewhere in the roughly league-average category defensively in center, so you'd think that he's got a shot to win a starting job somewhere next year, especially if the acquiring team has taken a look at his ISO and LD rates from this year. Rasmus might have been a bit lucky last season putting up a BABIP of .356 on a 22% LD rate, but he's most definitely given all of that back and then some this year with a .294 BABIP despite an increased LD rate of 23.3%. He still makes a ton of hard contact, and I for one would be willing to run him out there (at least against RHP) as a #7 or #8 hitter in the lineup. In the right place, he can still have fantasy value across the board, but we will have to see where he settles. It looks like he can be safely benched for the remainder of 2014, barring an injury to Anthony Gose or Kevin Pillar.
Matt Shoemaker - Shoemaker is now 9-2 in the 2nd half, walking only 9 men over 72 1/3 innings. With an excellent swingingstrike% of 10.7% combined with the aforementioned control, Shoemaker has been able to get by as a flyball-oriented pitcher without an explosive fastball. I believe this level of play to be near his peak abilities, but I don't think that he's necessarily likely to regress going forward....he certainly looks like a potential #2/#3 starter going into next year.
David Freese - Freese homered again on Monday, giving him 3 for the month to go along with a 12-game on-base streak. It's been a miserable first year in the AL for Freese until September, but he has managed a LD rate of over 26%, which shows me that the raw hitting ability is still there. I do believe that there is some upside here for 2015 if he can stay healthy for a change, and I'd treat him as a solid sleeper in standard-sized leagues in the spring, as he's easily capable of achieving starting CI levels of production. He's worth starting in most leagues right now as well for the stretch run.
Oswaldo Arcia - I see a lot of Chris Carter in Arcia, outside of a bit less plate discipline (his swing% is 4% higher with a chase rate that's even a bit more disparate, contributing to the lower walk totals). Arcia has shown excellent power this year at age 23, hitting his 18th HR on Monday in just 333 ABs on the year. The 21.8% LD rate isn't fully represented in the BABIP, leading me to believe that he's likely to be more of a .250 hitter than a .230 one going forward, and there's still some solid growth years in front of him. I'm bullish on him for 2015 and beyond, particularly at the price that I think he'll fall at this spring.
