Ian Desmond (SS-WAS) – Batting second despite a sub-.300 OBP, Desmond was 3-for-4 against Arizona on Friday to bring his line up to .265/.300/.413. Desmond shocked us with a two-homer game a couple nights ago, but it doesn’t change the fact his 74:16 K:BB won’t support much of a BA going forward. Desmond stands 6’2”, so we have to think he’ll continue to fill out and perhaps add 15-20 HR power (nine so far this year), so combined with his 12 stolen bases, Desmond is starting to look like a top-10 NL shortstop, perhaps as early as 2011.
R.A. Dickey (SP-NYM) – They say knuckleballers age well, but this is ridiculous. After entering 2010 with a 5.43 career ERA in 440+ innings, Dickey now sits at 2.43 this year in 111 innings. All he did Friday toss a one-hit shutout with one walk and seven strikeouts against the Phillies. To be fair, the Phillies were starting Mike Sweeney and Wilson Valdez at 1B/2B instead of Howard and Utley, but this isn’t that much of a fluke considering his total body of work this year. Too bad it took the Mets until May 19 to give him a shot, though considering his resume, it’s hard to blame them.
Josh Johnson (SP-FLA) – It’s a shame Josh Johnson has just 10 wins despite a stellar 2.27 ERA, but he certainly deserved the loss on Friday. The Reds lit up the ace for six runs on 10 hits over 3.2 innings. Johnson failed to strike out a single hitter while walking two. This is pretty concerning considering prior to Friday Johnson had allowed five runs in a start on August 1 and that he has just 15 strikeouts in his last 24.1 innings. Call it regression to the mean if you well, but cross your fingers for his next outing.
Jonathan Broxton (RP-LAD) – Broxton tossed a scoreless inning in a non-save situation Friday against the Braves the same day he was removed from the closer position. Broxton has been struggling indeed, but even in allowing four runs to blow a save in spectacular fashion on Thursday, he was hitting 98 on the radar gun in that outing, so consider his removal to be temporary. After all, Broxton still has a 60:18 K:BB in 47.1 innings, so consider his bad run recently to be temporary.
Mike Stanton (OF-FLA) – The concerns about Stanton hitting for a solid BA are real given his propensity for striking out (68 in 54 games), but the power at age 20 is very real. Friday, Stanton doubled and homered twice in four at-bats to improve his line to a solid .270/.345/.571 in 196 at-bats. He won’t garner NL ROY consideration given the paucity of at-bats on his resume, but he already has 30 XBH in 54 games. Now once he matures, watches video, and get on a conditioning program, watch out.
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