Barry Zito
I’m pretty sure it was Barry Zito tossing eight scoreless innings against the Padres on Saturday, but with the lineup San Diego is rolling out there these days, it may as well have been horse trainer Nick Zito. Barry allowed just three hits while walking four and striking out five while making 116 pitches. The outing lowered Zito’s ERA to 5.40 which is the lowest it has been since mid-April, but don’t get too excited. Here’s a few ratios to temper your enthusiasm: 75:71 K:BB, 5.9 K/9, 5.5 BB/9, .299 BAA, and a 5.09 ERA in July. Pretty amazing to think that Kyle Lohse signed for $121 million less but has 13 wins and a 3.73 ERA. Being left-handed and having experience is going to result in the occasional good outing for Zito, but realize that the Padres ranks 29th out of 30 teams in runs scored and on Saturday started a leadoff guy with a .301 OBP and a No. 5 hitter with five home runs. Basically, other than Adrian Gonzalez, a team of Triple-A guys.
Colt Morton
Matching pitch for pitch with C.C. Sabathia, Morton may have saved his rotation spot with a great effort on Saturday. Entering the day with a 7.26 ERA, Morton had never gone more than six innings and was coming off an eight run shellacking by the Cardinals, but he rose to the challenge against a tough Brewers team to hold them to two runs on four hits (one a Prince Fielder homer) over seven innings, walking one and striking out four. Morton rode an impressive Arizona Fall League performance into a 2.05 ERA in 13 games in Triple-A this year and then a big league call-up once the Braves’ rotation began to suffer serious injuries. Morton entered Saturday with a 24:20 K:BB, but looking at that same ratio in Triple-A (72:27 in 79 innings), we see a glimmer of hope. He’s never going to front a rotation (few do), but Saturday was a huge step in the right direction. Now he “just” has to do this again next time out and maybe we’ll start believing.
Prince Fielder
No word on whether Fielder is eating meat again, but he’s certainly playing like it. Two more homers on Saturday gave him five in his past four games including at least one in each. Fielder is still just 24 in his third full season and it seems he’s now realizing how much money he stands to make in his first year of arbitration (though the Brewers hope to extend him well beyond 2009). Fielder now has 17 home runs since the end of May after hitting just eight in the season’s first two months. 43% of Fielder’s batted balls have been on the ground versus 34.9% a year ago and that’s a significant variance. He’s clearly getting more balls in the air lately, so expect the home runs to continue to come in bunches. He won’t finish with 50 again, but 40 is certainly within reach.
Lastings Milledge
Milledge was 1-for-3 with a walk, homer, and three runs scored on Saturday but is still hitting just .241/.306/.367. In 332 at-bats, Milledge has eight homers and 13 SB and with the injuries he’s endured this year, it’s certainly set him back. I still like his upside quite a bit however and view him as a guy would could go 20/20 as early as next year. His 0.39 EYE isn’t anything special, but for a kid with as little experience as Mlledge has, an 83% CT% isn’t bad at all. It’s amazing that none of the top four hitters for the Nationals on Saturday have an AVG above .248, and with that sort of supporting stats, Milledge’s counting stats will remain low, but his set of tools is impressive nonetheless.
Joey Votto
At .275/.343/.445, Votto has had a so-so rookie season. Lately though he’s been worse, homering just three times since the end of May and hitting just .247 with RISP. Saturday though found Votto in a different spot, second in the order ahead of Jay Bruce and Votto responded with a bases-clearing double in four at-bats. Ideally, Votto would show a bit more pop and hit fourth or fifth, but given his on-base skills, this actually makes some sense from Dusty Baker. Baker has even resisted the urge to bat the .189-hitting Corey Patterson (yep he’s back) leadoff. Votto is going to have a nice big league career and though he’ll never be a Ryan Howard, I think he’ll eventually settle in as a .290/.360/.470 type which isn’t too shabby.
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