Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox - $3,200 A powerful first baseman playing in Toronto? Yes please. Jose Abreu took Dickey deep on Tuesday and he gets to face the homerun extraordinaire Marco Estrada on Wednesday. After not homering since May 17th, Abreu has now gone deep in two of his past three as he has had trouble replicating the success he had last season. He has as good a chance as anyone for a homer Wednesday.
Mike Pelfrey, Minnestoa Twins - Mike Pelfrey outdueled Clay Buchholz over seven strong innings to improve to 4-and-1 on the season. He struck out just four, but allowed just five hits and only walked one. This may be a nice time to sell high on Pelfrey, as his peripherals don't match his standard stats. He is only striking out just over one more batter than he is walking batters per nine this year and has had serious walk issues in the past. His hard contact rate has fallen off a cliff dramatically, going from 27% last season to 18.7% this year while also seeing a climb in his soft contact rate by 2%. His GB rate is also well above his career average of 48%. All these numbers are fine and dandy, but with such a low strikeout rate you're basically betting on the fact that hitters won't figure him out all season, and continue to put the ball in play without any authority. Maybe he's this year's Phil Hughes, but I'm betting on a fall off starting fairly soon for Pelfrey.
Jake Elmore, Tampa Bay Rays - Jake Elmore was called up from AAA on Monday and is hitting .500 with two doubles and four RBI in the past two contests. For the season, Elmore has one homer and seven RBI in 22 plate appearances. Elmore hasn't flashed much power or a plus-average in the minor leagues but he has been a stolen base threat, swiping 32 bags with AAA Reno in 2012. Two years ago with the Astros is when he got his most playing time and he hit two homers and stole one base in 52 games, so he's already essentially matched that total in his short time with the Rays this year. He's not worth looking at right now, or probably ever, as there are just other ways you can get moderate steals but also have some power or average potential thrown in.
Prince Fielder, Texas Rangers - The 2014 reports of Prince Fielder's demise were greatly exaggerated... 2015 has been a polar opposite for the big lefty as he now leads the American League in hitting at .371 and launched his 10th homer Tuesday while driving in his 36,37,and 38th RBI. Fielder has basically turned back the clock to his Milwaukee days and even taken though up a couple of notches. You'd think that the .371 average would be some .460 BABIP fueled number, but at .386 it's not at the point where it's astronomically high (although that is a really high number). Fielder is ripping the ball this year, seeing a 12% climb in his hard hit and at 38.6% it's right in line with his career average. He's also hitting line drives at the 3rd highest mark of his career, the final number that shows that we may have our old Prince back.
Josh Donaldson, Toronto Blue Jays - Have yourself a day Josh Donaldson, the Blue Jays third baseman had a monster game Tuesday going 4-for-4 with two homers , four RBI, and five runs. The second of the two homers came in form of a walk off shot to right. Donaldson now has 12 homers and 33 RBI with a triple slash of .315/.379/.582 and an ISO of .266. His hard contact rate is up 2% over last season and is 6% higher than his career average, although that number is held down by two sub 30% totals in his first two seasons. If there's something Donaldson can improve on (nitpicking here) it's his 11.3% swinging strike rate which is among the 50 highest in all of baseball.
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