Garrett Jones and Andrew McCutchen had an incredible day, perhaps one of the best a pair of teammates have ever had. Both players had five hits each, while Jones had a double and a homer and drove in five runs, McCutchen also had his fifth home run and also stole two bases.
While I am still unsure of Jones’ future production I have nothing but love for McCutchen and what he can do. I think he will make a run at 40 stolen bases and could definitely hit 20 home runs as well. He is one of the more exciting young players in the league.
David Ortiz had a two-home run game on Friday to bring his season total to six, but he is still hitting an abysmal .216. Is Ortiz worth having on fantasy rosters anymore? It is getting harder to say yes to that question by the day.
It is nice to see him to get to 25 homers again, but if he can’t get his average to a respectable level, he truly is waiver-wire fodder. If you have him, I guess you can keep him unless something comes around that you can’t pass up.
After a couple of rough outings, Clay Buchholz bounced back nicely even though he walked five guys. Buchholz allowed just one earned run and struck out three over 6.1 innings, which is pretty good considering he gave up nine runs in his previous two outings.
He is a very promising young pitcher and has already thrown a no hitter in his career. Definitely continue to throw out Buchholz no matter who he is pitching against.
Joe Mauer hit his second home run of the season and drove in a few runs as well. I will not argue that he will always hit for a good batting average, but I warned against taking him too soon.
I still could be proven wrong, but he hit his fifth home run on May 15, 2009, and that was after missing the entire month of April. This year after missing just about a week of time, Mauer still only has two.
Rangers catcher Max Ramirez hit his second home run in the past three games as he keeps filling in for Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Ramirez has always flashed a lot of power in the minor leagues and has been waiting for the chance to show it in the majors.
It looks like Salty might be down in the minors again for a while, but I don’t know if Ramirez is guaranteed every day at bats just yet.
Until you see him play maybe a week straight, or at least five games out of seven he isn’t worth an add, but this kid has a chance to be good, so if he keeps hitting for another few days, I might consider putting him on my team.
Jaime Garcia had another great outing for the Cardinals as he continues to look like he will be for real. Garcia allowed just a two run home run over 6.1 innings while striking out six.
The two runs marks the most he has given up in a start this season, and he now has 36 whiffs in just over 44 innings. I keep waiting for him to regress some and become a normal pitcher, but Garcia keeps shining. Continue to ride this hot streak until it comes to an end.
OK, I am officially done with keeping tabs on Oliver Perez again for 2010. Perez absolutely blew up again tonight against the Florida Marlins as he allowed seven earned runs over just 3.1 innings.
He did strike out five guys, but he also walked three and gave up four home runs among his nine hits. Perez had a decent start to the season, but two horrific starts in a row is enough for me to completely jump off of the bandwagon.
Anibal Sanchez outdueled Perez (although that didn’t take much) and had his fifth straight start in which he allowed two runs or less. Anibal held the Mets in check for seven innings allowing just two runs and striking out seven.
Sanchez has been incredibly injury prone throughout his career, so if you do have him or are considering adding him after this performance just know that there is a very good chance that he could get hurt somewhere along the way.
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