It continues to be one of those years for Richie Sexson and his owners. He showed some signs of breaking out last week, hitting his only two homeruns of the month, but is still hitting just .178 in July and .204 for the season. However, if you're looking for a 1B or you've decided to go down with the ship with Sexson, you can take comfort in his historical second-half performance numbers. In 2006, after hitting just .218 in the 1st half, Sexson went on a tear in the 2nd half and hit .322 with a 1.012 OPS. 2005 tells a similar story, except not quite as prominent. He posted a .258 average in the first half with an .865 OPS compared to .269 post all-star break with a .961 OPS. By the way, he was ejected from the game on Sunday, but there shouldn't be any further disciplinary repercussions.
Michael Young's 11-game hit streak ended on Sunday with an 0-for-4 against the Royals. After a slow start of hitting just .215 in April, Young has bounced back with a .296 in May, .361 in June, and .319 in July. He's still on pace to flirt with the 200-hit mark despite his Mendoza-line June performance. If he does accumulate 200 hits, it will be the 5th year in a row for him. One note of interest is his power production this year compared to previous years. Young has never been known for his power, but has historically been able to post 20+ HR years. For example, in 2004 and 2005, Young average a HR for every 31.4 and 27.8 AB respectively. Last year, that figure dropped to 49.4 and this year its at 106.0. While he's not owned for his power, you can probably assume this rate won't stay at this level and a bit of a power surge will occur over the final few months of the season to at least get him in the 50.0 range.
Has there been a streakier hitter in 2007 than Bobby Abreu? Well, I guess the hot and cold spells have been a recent phenomenon since he was simply just cold for about the first two months of the season. Now, Abreu goes into 1-for-16 skids and then breaks out for a short period of time and then does it all over again. Overall, Abreu's 2nd half performance has been respectable, posting a 0.74 FPI compared to a 0.58 in the first half. His HR/AB has improved significantly from 64.6 pre-all-star break to 24.3 post and has raised his full season average to .270.
If you polled "baseball fans"to name the first basemen with 25 HR or more, how many of them would mention Carlos Pena? Pena knocked his 25th dinger of the season on Sunday and continues to have an incredible season at the plate. He's posting a 0.80 FPI while averaging a HR for every 11.8 AB (that's more than just impressive, that's Ruthian). It will be difficult for him to maintain such a torrid pace, but even if his rate falls to a HR for ever 22 AB, he still remains one of the big fantasy free agent pickups of the year.
So who gave up on Chone Figgins in May? You can admit it. I think we all knew that Figgins wasn't going to consistently perform at his May average of .156, but I don't think anybody realized he would be hitting .419 since June 1st with a .983 OPS. That's right - almost two months of a 1.08 FPI combined with 22 stolen bases and 31 RBI. He continued to show his stuff off on national television last night, going 3-for-5 with 3 runs scored and a stolen base.
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