Jose Reyes, (SS- Rockies)
It was reported by Jon Heyman that Jose Reyes cleared waivers and that there is some interest in him from a couple of teams. Any team interested would have to take on a fairly sizable contract and Reyes' defensive skills at SS have been on the wane. His .274/.310/.369 line on the year is not especially appealing. True he has stolen 19 bases in his 83 games including one in today's game, but his ISO is under .100 and he has not hit double digit HR's since 2012 with the Marlins. Factor in the injury risk, and you have a player with a wRC+ of 84. At 32 years old, Reye's best days look to be behind him, but for roto players he has enough value to contribute. The move to Colorado has revitalized many careers, although so far it hasn't happened with Reyes. In a small sample of 11 games since his trade, he is hitting only .225.
Julio Teheran, SP-(Atlanta)
Julio Teheran has not performed at the level of his previous two seasons and there has even been talk that the Braves would consider making him available in a trade situation. After two consecutive 14 win seasons, and a .289 ERA in 2014, this year's 4.44 ERA is concerning. In Teheran's defense, his performances in 2013 and 2014 were not supported completely by his underlying peripherals, so he was neither as good as he looked then or as bad as he has looked this season. One area that has shown decline is his control as he is walking batters as a 3.26 BB/9 rate which is way above the prior two seasons. He still has an excellent 11% swinging strike rate, but his chase rate has dropped so it seems that batters are laying off his pitches outside the zone. And that's probably due to less effective off-speed pitches this season. Teheran's velocity has held this season, and he is only 24, so he certainly has the talent to get back on track. In fact, his last 3 games, including a win in today's start, have been good outings so he could be rounding back into shape. He is under team control, so the Braves would be wise not to move him unless they get considerable young talent in return.
Chase Utley (2B- Cubs) ($2400)
Chase Utley has always engendered a lot of respect for his elite performance over the first 7 years of his career. Even after a number of injury riddled seasons, he came back in 2013 and 2014 and posted very respectable numbers especially in 2013 with 18 HR's and 69 RBI's with a .284 BA. This season has been a disaster for Utley both on the field and with injuries. He has a .208/.276/.313 line. Now almost 37, is it reasonable to believe that he can come back yet again from injury and perform well? Utley said that he has corrected a flaw in his swing. The early results are somewhat encouraging as he was 4-5 today and has 11 hits in his last 22 AB's. There is talk that he could be moved to a contending team looking for some help at 2B. I would not be surprised if there is a little left in the tank since it is hard to measure the truly great ones by normal standards. At $2400, he makes for a good play in FanDuel on Saturday.
Pedro Alvarez (1B- Pitts)
The thunderous power still remains as Pedro Alvarez hit a 446 blast for a HR earlier this week. He has been playing much better of late batting .310 in August after 2 hits today. Quite a change from a dismal performance in July where he hit only .218. Of course, power is everything with Alvarez and he has a .207 ISO this season which is more in line with his career numbers. Last season's decline in HR's to 18 in 445 PA's, after 2 straight 30 HR seasons, was fueled by a .173 ISO and it has helped to cost him playing time. He is one of those hitters who has had some crazy fluctuations in LD% and this year his fine 22.4% mark has come at the expense of the lowest FB% at 24.9 of his career. If he is not putting the ball in the air, then even his prodigious 28.8% HR/FB rate won't produce the desired power numbers. But he is streaky enough that if he starts to lift the ball again, he could go on a surprising power surge for the remainder of the year.
Jaime Garcia (SP-STL)
Jaime Garcia has been very solid since his return from arm and groin issues that caused him to miss most of April, May and July. He has posted an outstanding 1.57 ERA and has been a veritable ground ball machine at a 66.9% rate which is the best number of his career. Today's game was more of the same as he yielded only 1 run in 8.1 innings with 6 K's for the win. Garcia is benefiting greatly from a very low .218 BABIP, and a very favorable 84.6% strand rate, so his ERA will certainly be on the rise soon. His 8% swinging strike rate is low for him, so as he gains more consistency, the overall K rates should improve over his current 6.27/9 inning performance. The best news is that he actually throwing harder at 90.4 mph than he ever has even in his best years in 2010 and 2011 which were both 13 win seasons. With a solid team behind him, Garcia's prospects for closing out the year strong are very good as long stays away from the injury bug which has been his Achilles heel throughout his career.
@stevietheshu
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