Stephen Strasburg, RHP WAS From a health perspective, Saturday's start against the Pirates was encouraging, as Strasburg, who dealt with forearm tightness after his last start, threw 95 pitches over seven innings. However, the results were mixed. Strasburg struck out eight, walked one and allowed five hits, but he gave up two two-run homers, one to Starling Marte and the other to light-hitting shortstop Clint Barmes. Prior to 2013, Strasburg had a K/9 of 11.2, but has a K/9 of 8.7 this season. Going into Saturday's start, Strasburg's swing-and-miss rate was down by two percentage points from last year's mark. Batters were making contact on 67.4 percent of pitches thrown outside the strike zone, up from 55.9 percent in 2012. However, all eight of his K Saturday were swinging.
Adam LaRoche, 1B WAS LaRoche's fantasy owners are ready to put his frigid April behind them, and it appears LaRoche is as well. He has gone 4-for-7 with five walks over his last three games after walking eight times in all of April. The first baseman has a career .212 average in April, and is a .247 hitter in May. He doesn't do the heavy lifting until after the All-Star break, when he is a .293 hitter with 103 homers and an .886 OPS in his career. In fairness, LaRoche does have just a .207 BABIP despite holding a line-drive rate of 23.7 percent.
Jon Jay, OF STL Jay has put together three straight multi-hit games, including a 2-for-3 effort Saturday against the Brewers in which he hit a homer and drove in four runs. Jay went 4-for-36 over his 12 games prior to this three-game streak and lost his leadoff spot as a result. Jay is striking out more than last season, but he also has produced a BABIP that is 83 points lower than his .355 BABIP in 2012 despite posting a higher line-drive rate.
Carlos Gomez, OF MIL Something I never thought I'd write: Carlos Gomez is leading the National League in hitting. The other "CarGo" is batting .373, and he has continued to show the power he displayed for the first time last year by whacking six homers in 102 at-bats. Gomez' career line-drive rate is 17 percent, but he has posted a line-drive rate above 22 percent this season and has cut his strikeout rate from 21.7 percent in 2012 to 17.1 percent.
Patrick Corbin, LHP ARI It's remarkable what getting ahead in the count can do for a pitcher. Corbin threw a first-pitch strike 58.6 percent of the time last season, according to FanGraphs, and this year has thrown to more than 71 percent of the batters he has faced, second in all of baseball. His overall strike percentage ranks 13th in baseball. After holding San Diego to one run on five hits in seven innings Saturday, Corbin is 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP.
