All posts under "Player Commentary" - Page 131

Brandon Lyon: Despite allowing 10 runs in his last 5.1 innings, Manager Doug Melvin said that Lyon’s job as the closer is safe unless he begins to struggle in save situations. Although he has converted 25 of 30 saves and...

Jordan Schafer- ATL- Idea- Schafer, ranked as the top prospect in the Braves’ system before the season, has rebounded from his HGH suspension and extremely slow July. Last month he batted a weak .228 for AA Mississippi, but is cranking...

Nelson Cruz - Just like last time he came up, Cruz returned to Texas with a bang last night, blasting a homer, double, and a single in five trips to the plate. Something to keep in mind every single time...

Brandon Lyon: Make it 3 consecutive appearances and 5 of his last 6 outings that Lyon has now allowed at least one run. His last two appearances have come in non-save situations and you have to figure at this point...

Grady Sizemore swiped 3 bags last night, bringing his season total to 34 and topping his 2007 finish. Sizemore will also reach the 30-30 mark for the first time in his career with one more homerun. As it stands, his...

Clayton Kershaw Entering Saturday’s game against the Phillies, Kershaw had been in the midst of a stretch of five consecutive quality starts, going 2-0 with a 1.45 ERA and a 29:9 K:BB in those 31 innings. Saturday though, the expected...

Carlos Pena: I told you the best was about to come with Pena back at the beginning of August and Pena’s rewarded my faith. On Friday night Pena launched his 8th HR of the month and 13th extra base hit...

Jimmy Rollins – Rollins is having a disappointing season thus far, hitting .263/.329/.425 after an MVP season last year where he hit .296/.344/.531. The dip in Rollins’ batting average can largely be attributed to bad luck. Rollins is having the...

Garrett Olson: The Orioles send Olson to the minors, but he should be back when the rosters expand in September. He has struggled, 6.38 ERA, but a 63% strand rate and a .314 BHIP% can take part of the blame....

Kevin Millwood- TEX- Caution- Millwood put in a pleasantly uncharacteristic performance for a Texas pitcher last night, but he needed 113 pitches to get through his complete game. That is a lot for a pitcher who has seen the DL...

Matt Cain: Cain was solid again on Wednesday night posting his 8th quality start in his last 10 outings and allowing 2 ER’s or less for the 7th time in that span. He limited the Marlins to just 2 ER’s...

Quite a few new names on this week's top 50s and team top 5s, as the deadline for teams to sign their 2008 draft picks passed on Auguste 15. Due to Major League Baseball's new compensation rules, failing to sign...

Ray Durham: Rickie Weeks says he will play through his finger injury, but if he is unable to go, Durham would become the full-time second baseman. The 36-year-old still has some power (4 home runs but 29 doubles in 311...

Jon Lester - Lester continued his emergence as one of the better young pitchers in the game last night, holding the Orioles to four hits and a run over seven innings to earn his 12th win of the year. He's...

Willie Harris- WAS- Hot- We may be seeing some regression to the mean in Harris’ performance. Since the All Start Break he is batting .289 with 4 homers and 9 doubles in 114 ABs. In his last 49 games, dating...

Randy Johnson: Make it 6 consecutive quality starts for the Big Unit as he allowed just 3 ER’s over 7 innings in a loss to Houston. Johnson made just one mistake during the outing giving up a 3 Run HR...

Matt Harrison: Baseball is a funny game sometimes. Matt Harrison could not have entered Saturday night’s contest with worse numbers in his first 7 major league starts from either an actual performance or peripherals perspective. Yet there he was tossing...

Pablo Sandoval Sandoval had his contract purchased by the Giants on Wednesday. It seems unlikely that the minor league catcher will supplant Benji Molina, but he could see quite a bit of time between catcher and first base as the...

Brad Hawpe is putting together some kind of season considering how awful most of his first half turned out. Hawpe slammed his 20th homer of the year yesterday as he went 2-4 with 1 HR and 2 RBI in a...

Hiroki Kuroda: Is there a bigger role of the dice from night-to-night with a mid-level starter than Hiroki Kuroda? In 23 starts this year Kuroda has notched 7 Disaster Starts in which he’s posted a line of: 0-3, 13.95 ERA,...

Anthony Reyes: Supposedly there were such major philosophical differences on the art of pitching between Reyes and former pitching coach Dave Duncan that a change of scenery for Reyes was absolutely needed. At first glance, it looks like it is...

J. J. Putz- SEA- Cold- Putz had a blown save last night, giving up a game tying homer to Mark Teixeira in the 9th inning. He has not thrown a 1-2-3 inning since July 20th, which was his first game...

American League 15 Chris Carter OAK 1B B+ 34 HR and excellent 55% XBH%.127 K in 117 games but we'll overlook that for now. 19 Carlos Triunfel SEA SS B .357 since the end of June. 6 HR in July...

Charlie Zink – Charlie Zink had been tearing up the minor leagues before being added to the Boston rotation. This year at triple-A, he had a 13 – 4 record thanks to a 2.89 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. He did...

Chad Tracy: Tracy could wind up being the big loser in playing time with the acquisition of Adam Dunn. For the time being he is safe, but once Justin Upton returns, it would take the longshot move of putting Mark...

First Pitch – August 13th – Value Picks: We’re back to the usual schedule and the usual format this week for our Value Picks column. It will be a bit of an abridged version since I’m travelling in the Pellston,...

Brandon Backe- HOU- Hot- Talk about bouncing back. Backe did a 180 degree turn from his last start, when he was charged with 11 runs on 9 hits and 6 walks in 3-1/3 IP. Last night he gave up just...

Denard Span - Span just keeps hitting, adding a double and a steal to his tally last night against the Yanks. He has looked every bit the leadoff man in August, hitting 325/400/525 with three steals in three tries. The...

Max Scherzer: It’s time to start paying attention to Max Scherzer again. Scherzer’s returned from a brief stint on the minor league DL with shoulder issues and is being stretched out with the anticipation of being used as a starter....

Omar Infante - Infante is tearing it up right now, showing huge jumps in LD%, BB rate, and contact% this year with the Braves. This is a guy that had 52 extra-base hits in Comerica Park as a 22 year...

Chris Volstad – Don’t get too excited about Volstad shutting down the Phils over 6 innings yesterday. He only struck out 3, and meanwhile, he yielded 4 walks. On the season, the rookie has posted a K/BB ratio of 1.60...

Eddie Guardado: Although his numbers look good, 3.02 ERA and a perfect 3 for 3 in saves, Guardado is a disaster waiting to happen as the new Rangers closer. He has a pedestrian 5.2 K/9; plus his 55% FB% is...

Johnny Damon- NYA- Hot- Damon went 2-for-5 to extend his current hitting streak to 7 games and has hit safely in 12 of his last 13. He has definitely benefited from good luck, with a .290 BHIPx, but he also...

American League 1 Matt Wieters BAL C A Think he wants a Sept. call-up? .441 in last 10 games. For the year: 1.03 EYE, 1.041 OPS. 5 Matt LaPorta CLE OF A- Just .212 in 52 at-bats for CLE before...

Yoslan Herrera: After posting a 9.82 ERA in five starts, the Pirates mercifully sent Herrera back to the minors. Considering that he was not exactly blowing Double-A hitters away; 5.2 K/9 and a 3.1 BB/9, his lack of success in...

Marlon Byrd - Byrd was the hero last night with a walk-off grand slam against the Yanks, bringing his post-All Star break line to 283/406/528 in nearly every-day play. Byrd is posting career highs in walk rate, K rate (in...