Alex Gordon, Kansas City Royals - Gordon took full advantage of all his at-bats in the double-header Tuesday, going 6-for-9 with a homer and four RBI. Gordon's stat line is amazingly similar to last year whether you're looking at counting stats, peripherals, contact rates, everything... He's seen a slight jump in his LD% but we've seen a dramatic drop off in his stolen base numbers. While he's never been a burner, Gordon has stolen at least 10 bases in each of the last four season but has only attempted five steals in the first half and has only successfully swiped a bag once. His overall offensive numbers aren't great enough to carry the lack of steals, so he becomes a lower end outfielder in Roto leagues.
Albert Pujols, Los Angeles Angels - Pujols is clearly just using the first half of the season to warm up for the Homerun Derby next week launching his 26th homer of the season. It's hard to decide how long he can sustain this pace as currently every fifth fly ball Pujols hits is leaving the yard. As I noted, he's competing in the Homerun Derby next week which will be the first time he's competed since 2009. In the 2nd half of 2009 he didn't have any sort of Derby slump, triple slashing .322/.426/.582 with 15 homers after hitting 32 in the first half. In 20 less games, that will explain some of the drop off in homers and his Oppo hit % also jumped 7% from the first to second half. Now that was a 29 year old Pujols and now at 35, I wonder how his body will hold up over the second half of the season.
Miguel Sano, Minnesota Twins - Sano is having about as good as a debut as we all expected, and he continued to hot stretch with his first career homer Tuesday. He also walked with the bases loaded given in three RBI in the game, and now is triple slashing .450/.542/.700 in 24 PA's. I feel fairly confident saying that his .615 BABIP won't stay that high (sarcasm), but in his small sample size his hard hit percentage is at a ridiculous 64%. Brooks Baseball shows that Sano is hammering fastballs and struggling more with offspeed pitches, as most young players do, so he'll need to make some adjustments when pitchers start coming at him with the soft stuff more often. In the end though Sano is a stud and should stay in Minnesota for the rest of the season.
Jose Quintana, Chicago White Sox - Quintana pitched an absolute gem Tuesday and proved further why quality starts are a better (still not 100%) stat to look at compared to wins. He tossed 8.0 innings with four hits and two earned runs. He also struck out eight with no walks and now doesn't have a walk in any of his last three outings (16.0 innings, 16 K). He now has a quality start in each of his last eight starts but has only a 2-3 record over that span. His last start of the first half comes Sunday against the Cubs, where I feel he'll continue his QS pace.
Felix Doubront, Toronto Blue Jays - Doubront shut down the White Sox over 6.2 innings with six strikeouts and six hits allowed. He allowed a lone earned run, as Josh Donaldson's homerun gave the Blue Jays and Doubront the win. The Blue Jays are scrambling to find some pitching in order to make a run at the playoffs, and Doubront could fill a role after having a few solid seasons for the Red Sox in their rotation. In 2012-13, Doubront averaged around an even 4.00 FIP and struck out 8.5 batters per nine. IF he can repeat totals close to that, with Toronto's offense behind him, he could end up being fantasy relevant.
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