Hunter Pence - Pence singled and homered yesterday against the Pirates to extend his hitting streak to 8 games, and he's really heated up since summer started, batting 333/429/524 since the first of July. Pence has continued to improve his K rate this season, and he's walking quite a bit more as the season is moving along as well. Unlike just about every other offensive Astro, I am optimistic about the 27 year old Pence the rest of the way. He is worth owning, to me, in all formats, due to the steady improvements in both his contact and in his power (HR/FB increase every season...power numbers muted a touch this year due to a GB% of close to 60).
Matt Cain - Cain had a solid outing yesterday against a rather pedestrian Met lineup, holding them to two runs on four hits over seven innings, walking one and fanning three. Cain hasn't had what I would consider a stellar outing against a quality offense since shutting out the Reds (on 22 flyballs, mind you) almost a month and a half ago, and with a declining K rate, abnormally low BABIP and HR/FB rates, and the worst swinging strike% of his career, I'm a bit pessimistic. His velocity is also down considerably this season. Cain is too good to bench, but I would certainly explore opportunities to deal him if the possibility arose. I would expect an ERA closer to 4.00 than 3.00 the rest of the way.
Bud Norris - Norris retained his claim to being the best pitcher in baseball with an ERA over 6.00, as the Pirates beat him around yesterday for seven runs (four earned) over 4 2/3 innings in a 12-6 defeat. Norris was outstanding in AAA and adequate for the Astros in 2009, but despite increasing his K/9 to 9.66 and cutting his homer rate by 0.53, he's still posting an ERA of 6.09. The BABIP is a bit higher than you'd expect, but it's basically the strand rate of 58% that is crushing him. His walk rate is too high to expect a ton of success, but there is some definite upside to any starter that can post a K rate over 9.00 in their first 125 big league innings. Norris has very solid stuff, and let's keep in mind that his FIP ERA is under 4.00. I'm not saying that Norris is a future front-line starter, but he certainly could be a sleeper in NL-only formats down the stretch.
Pedro Alvarez - Alvarez is really heating up in his first full month with Pittsburgh, as another single and a double yesterday have him batting 298/340/574 in July. The warts on his game are significant, in particular the K rate that even during this hot stretch in July is over 30%, but to show this kind of power at age 23 illustrates his significant upside. He is only owned in just over 2% of ESPN leagues, so clearly most people were completely turned off by the frigid start. Alvarez has enough upside to be a reserve choice in the majority of formats, and he certainly should be starting in NL-only and, oh, say the deepest 10% or 20% of mixed leagues.
Tyler Colvin - Colvin continues to be exposed a bit in a bigger role, as a 1-4 day yesterday (albeit with another XBH, a double) has him hitting 209/277/395 for the month of July. Colvin's K rate is hovering around 30% and his ISO since earning more PT is closer to .200 than the .262 he's posted for the year, so I think there's even a bit more downside here as he attempts to make adjustments. there's enough real power here that he may grow into a starter's role, but it certainly seems that he isn't at that point quite yet. I agree with Drew that his value is primarily in NL-only formats at present, although deeper mixed leaguers could make use of him as well.
