AUGUST QUICK HITS

1) August and September call-ups and how they usually fair, what the numbers historically are like for guys like Francoeur and Felix Hernandez.

Jeff Francoeur (.419-8-23-21 in 86 AB)
~ No one is this good.
~ In his 86 AB he has ZERO BB.
~ He was only hitting .275-13-62 in 84 games for the AA Mississippi Braves prior to his call-up this year.

Felix Hernandez, SP, Mariners – (9-4, 2.25, 100, 1.25 at AAA)
~ Best pitching prospect in the minors. Most often compared to Dwight Gooden.
~ Dominated w/o throwing his best pitch his slider (the team didn’t want him throwing it at his young age of 19).
~ Allowed only 62 hits in 88 IP this year (48 BB).
~ in 2 MLB starts: 1-1, 0.69 ERA, 0.77 WHIP and 10 K versus 2 BB in 13 IP.


2) Return of Nomar and Corey Patterson and their fantasy impacts

Corey Patterson (.231-11-24-37-12)
~ Hit .158 in his last 120 MLB AB.
~ Did hit .297 with a .366 OBP an a .505 Slg% in 24 minor league games after hitting only .214 in his first 73 AB.
~ He did go 20/20 last year and was on pace to do that again this year before demotion (only 9 guys went 20/20 in 2004).

NOMAR
~6 for 19 since he returned (.316).
~ A career .320 hitter with a .912 OPS.
~ Numbers last year + this: .289-10-47-60 in 391 AB.
~ Huge impact replacing Neifi Perez.


3) ATHLETICS
Since the ALL_STAR BREAK: 3.32 ERA, 1.17 WHIP
Zito+Harden+ Blanton = 11-3, 3.10 ERA, 1.09 WHIP.

HITTING
Mark Ellis (.310-3-31-38-1)
~ Since the break: .394-2-17-19.
~ In his last 39 games: .336-3-24-27

DAN JOHNSON (.317-10-31-37)
~ .353-6-13-19 in 24 games since the break.

ASTROS
~PITCHING STAFF: SINCE the BREAK : 2.48 ERA, 1.15 WHIP
~ Since the all-star break Clemens + Pettitte + Oswalt = 9-4, 1.70 ERA, 1.08 WHIP.

HITTING
Jason Lane (.257-17-50-40-6)
~ Since the break: .359-3-10-8 in 20 games

Morgan Ensberg (.295-31-87-68-6)
~ Since the break: .313-7-22 in 26 games.


4) CARLOS BELTRAN (.269-13-59-57-9)
~ Struggled all year especially in JUNE when he hits .198 in 101 AB.
~ In his CAREER after the all-star break
He hits .027 HIGHER (.297)
He has a .029 higher OBP (.367)
He has a .068 higher SLG (.524)
He has a .097 higher OPS
AND
He has stolen 11 more bases despite playing in 147 less 2nd half games!

The Rafael Palmiero Saga

Prettymuch eveyone in the world has written thier opinion on this guy, and while I'm inlcined to believe someone is innocent until proven guilty, it sure doesn't look to good for this former boy scout.

I weighed in on the topic in two places this week.

(1) http://athomeplate.com/palmeirosteroid.shtml

In this piece 4 writers from the AHP staff gave thier views on Raffy's drug use. Here is a quote from my piece:

Giambi, Bonds, McGwire and Sammy Sosa might have used steroids but none of them was ever caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Palmeiro’s hand is so deep in the cookie jar that he has chocolate covering his whole body like Augustus Gloop, the child who falls into the chocolate river in Willy Wonka.


(2) http://www.fantasybaseball.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=280
(You can sign up for FREE to read this one and to have access to all www.fantasybaseball.com pieces).

In this piece, I examined whether or not, steroids or not, Palmeiro's record showed him to be a Hall of Famer. Suprisingly to most, I decided, based solely on his numbers, that is not worthy of the Hall. A snipet from that piece:

~ Palmeiro NEVER led the league in AVG, HR, RBI or OPS.
~ Palmeiro NEVER won the MVP, and in fact finished 5 th out of our five 1B in our review of MVP voting.
~ Palmeiro made only 4 all-star teams, the fewest out of the five 1B that we surveyed.
~ And the capper…despite an illustrious career that included a marvelous series of consistently good season, Palmeiro was NEVER the best 1B in his league for a single season in his career.


Those of you that are interested should be able to find all your Raffy info in these two selections.