Ron Belisario (CL- CWS)
Ron Belisario gave up a run and two hits over 1.2 innings to pick up his 7th save of the year. In the very muddled CWS closer situation, Belisario has emerged to pick up 4 saves this month. He is by no means the traditional dominant closer as he barely strikes out 7 batters per nine innings and his swinging strike rate of 6.5% is very pedestrian and below league average. But he does throw gas with a fastball in the 94 mph range and he does feature an effective slider. While his ERA of 4.79 is not pretty, what is attractive about his pitching is that he is an extreme ground ball pitcher with a superb 62.4% GB rate. He is not prone to the HR and his xFIP stands at 3.30 which indicate better performance to come. While he can be rocky at times, he should have enough to hold off the other pretenders to the closer role especially if the positive performance indicators are correct.
Leonys Martin (OF-Texas)
Leonys Martin went 0-4 in today's game with a run scored. Martin has been given a chance to be the leadoff hitter for Texas and how he does over this next run of games may ultimately determine his fantasy value. So far this year he is producing about at the rate he did last year when he batted .260 with 8 HR, 66 runs, and 49 RBI's with 36 steals batting in the lower part of the order. The only change is that he is not helping his cause by only producing 11 XBH on the year. Martin's .089 ISO is anemic and may relegate him to the well known group of good steal guys who offer not much else. Leonys did produce 12 HR in 260 AB's during his final season in the minors, so there is still some hope that he can start to mature a bit in that regard, but at 26 and sitting atop a good Texas lineup, the time is now for Martin to produce.
Ben Zobrist (2B-Tampa Bay)
Ben Zobrist went 0-4 with 3 K's in today's game dropping his average to .251. Zobrist has always been a very productive fantasy asset with the versatility of multiple position eligibility and offensive contributions across a number of categories. This year has been a dud for Zobrist owners with 5 HR, 29 Runs, only 15 RBI's and just 4 SB's in 260 AB's. Last year was the first hint of decline as he produced 12 HR's and 11 stolen bases after back to back 20 HR seasons. Looking at his underlying peripherals, we see that he is grounding out at a higher rate of 47.6% than in any year outside of 2006. Zobrist's IFFB rate is also at an all time 14.9% high and he is not lifting the ball with authority having produced only a HR/FB rate of 7.5%. This power decline follows a poor 6.1% rate in 2013 so this is not an in season blip but an unfortunate trend. His contact rate remains good, but his line drive rate is in a two year decline as well. There just does not seem to be anything in his numbers that would give us hope for a significant turnaround so expect another down year from Zobrist.
Joe Mauer (1B-Minnesota)
Joe Mauer went 0 for 4 in today's game to see his average drop to .254 on the year. This poor average combined with only 2 HR's, 16 RBI's and 34 runs scored make him a fantasy liability rather than the incredible asset he has always been. These kinds of numbers are troubling for a catcher in today's game let alone someone who is playing a corner position. His customary strong line drive rate is intact, but he is driving the ball into the ground at a rate of 52.5% which steals from his already meager 19.8 %FB rate. This is a recipe for a complete power outage. His .309 BABIP rate is well below his .347 career average, so we can expect some BA gains, but there is no indication that his overall productivity will be on the upswing anytime soon. Once Mauer loses his catching eligibility after this year, it is probably heresy to say it, but he could go undrafted in mixed fantasy leagues next year.
John Lackey (SP Boston)
John Lackey pitched a 9 inning shutout today giving up only 3 hits and striking out 9 in a no decision effort against the Twins this afternoon. Lackey is having a great season with 8 wins and an ERA that sits at 2.96. The fact is that the underlying peripherals support the season he is having as his xFIP is 3.16. He returned to fantasy relevance last year with 10 wins and he is pitching even better this season. In fact his velocity of 91.9 is actually the best he has been in the last 6 seasons. His swinging strike rate of 9.4% is well above league average and all other indicators are in the up position. Lackey is getting better results with all of his pitches than he has in years. He appears to be on course for his best year since 2007 when he won 19 games for the Angels.
@stevietheshu
This is just a small sample of our daily analysis, join our member area for more premium content: http://www.fantistics.com/join/join.php3
