John Lackey – Lackey continued to dominate yesterday. He was one out away from a shutout when he was taken out of the game, and he ended up with 9 K’s and 2 BB’s. The win improved Lackey’s record to 6 – 1. I wrote before that I was a little bit skeptical of Lackey, and while his BABIP and LOB% both indicate that Lackey will start giving up more hits and runs, Lackey is playing the best baseball of his career. Due to some increased control, Lackey’s K/BB ratio is the best it has ever been. Right now, Lackey is striking out 4.15 batters for every one he walks, which is really good. If he keeps that up, Lackey should be dominant for the rest of the season.
Grady Sizemore – Sizemore is hitting a lot more fly balls this season (48.8%, career mark of 42.1%) at the expense of some line drives (17.2%, career mark of 20.9%), and it has had some interesting effects on his season. First of all, it has lowered Sizemore’s singles average. Over the past three seasons Sizemore has posted singles averages of .263/.240/.271, but this year it is a low .210. As a result, Sizemore is hitting just .265. However, Sizemore’s increased fly ball rate also seems to have positively affected his power. Over the past three seasons, Sizemore has posted HR rates of 3.2/3.8/3.3, but this season it has increased greatly to 4.9. As a result, Sizemore has already hit 19 bombs, and he is on pace to hit more than 30 homers for the first time in his career. Look for these trends to continue, but Sizemore’s best EYE of his career (.75) indicates that he could have some batting average upside despite the decrease in his LD%.
Chris Davis – Texas rookie and top prospect Chris Davis has been called up, and he should be considered in AL leagues and even some deep mixed leagues. Davis has already flashed some of his power, hitting 2 HR in his first 8 at bats as a major leaguer. In just 275 games, Davis hit 74 HR over his minor league career with an AVG/OBP/SLG line of .302/.357/.595. He is likely to have some batting average issues at first (career minor league EYE of .29), but he should still have good power numbers, which should lead to a decent amount of RBI’s in a talented Texas lineup.
Manny Ramirez – Manny went on a tear to begin June, homering in 5 of his first 8 games. However, Manny cooled off quickly and went nearly three weeks before hitting his next big fly last night. So, is this the start of another hot streak? Or should we expect to wait three more weeks before Manny hits another one out? Manny will probably be in the middle of these two extremes but if I had to choose I would go with the latter choice. Manny’s power and eye at the plate are two attributes that are fading. Manny has a career ISO of .278, but last season and this season it was just .197 and .238 respectively. Also, Manny, who is known as having a great eye at the plate has seen a reduction in his EYE from his career mark of .72 to .54 this season, meaning he is not seeing the ball as well as he once was.
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