David Price- TB- Hot- Price has thrown 2 straight quality starts against the teams at the top of the AL East, allowing just 1 run on 16 IP. This came after his usage eased up a little bit, with 3 starts of no more than 111 pitches. Price is still not back to where you'd want in terms of strikeouts (10 in those last 2 starts) or walks (5). He still may have some effects of heavy usage impacting him as the season winds down.
Carl Crawford- BOS- Cold- Crawford continues to disappoint, going 0-for-9 against the Rays despite only facing 1 left handed starter. His Batting EYE this month is only .18, bringing his mark for the season down to .22. Crawford seems to be in a tailspin that he is unable to get out of. How he finishes this season should play heavily into your evaluation of him for 2012.
Alfredo Simon- BAL- Cold- Simon has now had 3 poor starts in a row, giving up 13 ER in 15.2 IP on 29 hits and 5 walks. He has yielded 4 homers in that span, one more than he had given up in the whole season up to that point. There is an element of bad luck going on, as Simon's BABIP is up to .333 and LOB% is at 66.9% after this stretch so some regression to the mean will help bring him back to some of the decent numbers he had earlier.
Kurt Suzuki- OAK- Hot- Suzuki has his highest monthly batting average so far this season, hitting .268 in August up to this point. This is despite a terribly unlucky month (.219 BABIP). Suzuki has done this with a power surge. Of his 11 hits, 4 are homers. In 261 ABs Suzuki has 12 homers, improving on his homer rate of last year (13 in 495 ABs) and his career high in 2009 (15 in 570 ABs.) Given a more even luck factor (he has a .234 BABIP this season) Suzuki could be poised to have a big 2012 and could even finish strong if regression to the mean kicks in.
Fausto Carmona- CLE- Hot- Carmona has thrown 3 quality starts in a row and has struck out 6 in each of his last 2 starts. That is a promising sign. His LOB% of 63.9% is the same as it was in 2009, when his ERA was 6.32. A big difference between now and then, though, is that Carmona's BB/9 is only 2.79 instead of the inflated 5.03 of 2 years ago. This has led to a WHIP of 1.33 as opposed to 1.76. Carmona is a candidate for a strong finish.
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