Jimmy Rollins – Rollins is off to a cold start, going just 1 for his 14 at bats, with that one hit being a single. That can’t be comforting to owners, especially since his ’08 season was a disappointment. Still, there is plenty of reason to think that Rollins will rebound. First of all, his singles average was 13 points below his previous three year average. This happened despite the fact that Rollins showed a huge improvement in his EYE. Just look at his EYE the past four seasons: .66/.71/.58/1.05. On top of that Rollins posted a solid LD% of 24%, his best since 2003. These are not signs of a player on the decline, but signs of a player set to rebound. The only negative heading into the season is that Rollins put the ball on the ground way too much (1.43 GB/FB ratio). If he gets back to his career mark of 1.17, he will have a fine season.
Stephen Drew – Stephen Drew belted his first HR of the season yesterday, and continues to show that he should always be in your lineups when playing at home. Because of his extreme splits, he has added value if you can afford to make daily lineup changes and have a capable SS to platoon with Drew. In 2008, Drew hit .321/.361/.559 at home but just .263/.307/.449 on the road. Also, he hit .300/.348/.500 versus RHP but just .267/.293/.455 versus LHP.
Yovani Gallardo – Gallardo looked like he might be off to a rough start to the season. He walked the first batter he faced and hit the third batter he faced. Fortunately, Gallardo gathered himself and had no control issues the rest of the way, until walking the last batter he faced. In between then, Gallardo utilized a well placed fastball and devastating over the top curve; he struck out 6, got 20 outs, and gave up only 2 runs, despite some spotty defense (why is Rickie Weeks still at 2B?). It was also nice to see that of the 14 non-strikeout outs, 10 of them came via the groundball. We expected a breakout season for Gallardo, but if he continues to get ground balls at that rate (only a .97 career GB/FB ratio coming into the season) he could be a CY Young candidate.
Jordan Schafer – Jordan Schafer hit his second homerun today in only his third major league game. Schafer is no home run king, but he certainly has power and, as we stated as David pointed out a couple days ago, 20 HR potential. In 84 games at AA last season, Schafer posted an ISO of .202 and had an extra base hit percentage (percentage of hits that went for extra bases) of 42.5%, which is very impressive. Also, despite making the difficult jump from high A ball to AA ball, Schafer improved his EYE from .42 to .56. He has showed patience early this season, walking 3 times in 13 plate appearances.
Dexter Fowler – Fowler hit his first major league HR yesterday, and he is a young (23 YO) OF with immense talent. At AA ball last season he showed speed, power, and patience. He stole 20 bases, hit 49 EXBH (9 were HR), and walked 13.4% of the time in just 108 games. In an odd move, the Rockies kept Fowler on their major league roster as a fourth OF. Obviously the lack of playing time makes him useless as a fantasy player for now, but let’s hope it doesn’t stunt his future development. Fowler will most likely be an everyday player next year, so he has a lot of value in NL keeper leagues.
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