OAKLAND ATHLETICS

Huston Street has blown 3 of his last six save opportunities.  But fantasy owners need not worry.  His K/9 of 8.68 and BB/9 of 2.1 are still above average for closers.  Remember he is only 22 years old and is on his way to being among the elite of baseball’s closers.

After a horrendous start, which saw his batting average at .169 on May 11th, Dan Johnson has rebounded to get his average up to .241.  What has really been disappointing is the drop in power.  After hitting 15 home runs and 21 doubles in 375 AB last year, Johnson was expected to take a step up this year.  But with just 6 home runs in 231 AB his power is regressing.  He has gone homerless since June 13th, so it is not like he is showing any signs of turning it around.  With his batting eye and contact rate remaining consistent, the main culprit for the power outage has been his G/F ratio, which has risen from .93 last year to 1.58 this year.  He is simply not hitting the ball in the air enough or with authority to produce extra-base power.  Avoid him until there is some sustained improvement in his G/F ratio. 

At one point in his career, Jason Kendall was one of the better fantasy catchers.  Now he has become a one-dimensional player who only helps in batting average.  Whatever power he once possessed is completely gone as he has just 1 home run in his last 1,072 AB.  While he was not hitting home runs, he was still able to hit 28 doubles last year, but even that is showing a steep decline, as he only has 9 this season.  The days of the double digit steals from a catcher are also behind him, as not only does he play for a team that eschews the stolen base, he has also been caught 4 times in 8 attempts.  What Kendall still does well is make excellent contact, 91% rate this season, and work counts, .96 batting eye in 2006.  With those skills intact, he could see a bump up from his current .268 batting average.

LOS ANGELES ANGELS

Garrett Anderson had some big years from 2000 to 2003, averaging 30 home runs and 120 RBIs.  Age and a pre-arthritic condition involving his upper back and most of the joints in his body have reduced his production to 17 homes runs last season and just 7 this season.  Since his G/F has remained consistent, it appears that he has been robbed of some strength needed to get more of the fly balls over the wall.  Expect this to be his new level of production.

Kelvim Escobar has pitched better than his 6-9 record would indicate.  His K/9 of 6.8 is below previous season levels, which ranged from 7.94 to 9.50.  But he has compensated for that with an improved BB/9 of 2.6, which puts him under the acceptable level of 3.0 for the first time in his career.  He is also inducing more groundballs as his G/F ratio has improved to 1.42 from 1.14 and 1.23 in the previous two seasons.  This new approach has yielded a nice 3.84 ERA and the possibility of some second-half wins if he gets a little more run support.

John Lackey is another hard luck pitcher.  The 3.12 ERA is a bit of a mirage as he is not as dominant as last season when he went 14-5 with a 3.45 ERA.  His K/9 is down from 8.57 to 6.95 and his G/F ratio is down from 1.39 to 1.05, while his BB/9 has remained steady at 3.0.  That being said, this season’s numbers are still the ones of a solid pitcher and a little more run support will lead to more wins.

SEATTLE MARINERS

Center fielder Jeremy Reed is out until at least September with a broken right thumb.  Barring a trade, Willie Bloomquist and Shin-Soo Choo will platoon in center field. 

Bloomquist brings the one skill of speed to the table.  He will not help in any other category.  But for that one skill, he is worth picking up for AL-only leagues.

Shin-Soo Choo, as a left-handed batter, will see more time in the better part of the platoon.  He was having a fine season in Triple-A with 11 home runs, 42 RBIs and 22 steals.  If the plate patience skill transfers to the majors, he should get on base enough to help with stolen bases.  The power is still developing and is probably not major-league caliber yet.  Still, since it is very difficult to find stolen bases from waiver wire fodder this late into a season, he is worth picking up, even in mixed leagues.

A day after having a shouting match with Manager Mike Hargrove over playing time, Carl Everett was thrown out of Wednesday’s game for arguing a play at first base.  His me-first, selfish act has seen him be traded when he was a good player.  Now at 35 years of age and hitting .233, it won’t be long before the Mariners cut ties with him.  Chris Snelling, who is now hitting .298 in Triple-A, could get the call up to replace Everett.

TEXAS RANGERS

Adam Eaton is set to begin a minor-league rehab assignment this week.  If all goes well he could be back in the rotation towards the end of this month.  Last year, Eaton had a great first-half, going 9-2 with a 3.42 ERA.  After returning from a finger injury, he was not the same in the second-half, going 2-3 with a 5.75 ERA.  In 2005, his K/9 was a solid 7.0 and his BB/9 was an acceptable 3.1.  Pre-finger injury, he was even showing an improved G/F ratio, which he will need to survive homer happy Ameriquest field.  Keep an eye on him to see if he can rediscover the G/F ratio gains that slipped away in the second-half of last year.

Two splits on Vincente Padilla are warning signs to stay away.  The first is lefty batters are hitting .312 against him while right-handed batters are hitting just .199.  Managers around the league are aware of this and will be stacking their line-ups with left-handed batters against him.  The second split is his home/away ERA of 3.80/5.49.  Pitching his home games in Ameriquest Field, one would expect the split to go the opposite way.  Early in his career he was a groundball pitcher with G/F ratios in the 1.98 to the 2.95 range.  But with his 2004 and 2005 G/F ratios being an identical 1.25 and this year’s right there at 1.23, there has been a change in his approach.  Despite pitching 25 more innings at home, he has allowed 6 of 10 home runs on the road.  The stinginess of home runs at home will not last and with that his home ERA will approach his road ERA.

When Michael Young hit 22 home runs in 2004 at the prime age of 27, the power growth from 9 home runs in 2002 and 14 home runs in 2003 was fully supported by a three year declining trend in his G/F ratio from 1.64 to 1.42 to a career best .97.  However when he increased his home run total to a career high 24 last year, his G/F ratio rose to 1.45.  That suggested that a correction could be coming this year.  What has made this correction even steeper to just 6 home runs is that his 2006 G/F is 1.70.  The power will not return until he hits more balls in the air.