Kuzul

A quick review of last week’s least owned top performers in fantasy baseball. Justin Smoak goes yard in back to back games. Paul Maholm wins the Dr. Jeckyll / Mr. Hyde award. Edinson Volquez dominates in his return. Who will continue to dominate and who will disappear like a ninja?

SWINGERS

Chase Headley 47% owned
6 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 SB, .500
Chase started the season extremely strong, but fizzled around the end of May. The past month though has him been back on track (16 R/3 HR/11 RBI/.311). Padres are still on top…

Gordon Beckham 45% owned
2 R, 1 HR, 5 RBI, .643
Analysts have Beckham on the top of their lists of sleepers for the second half. Everyone is still waiting for the former 1st round pick to turn the corner in his career. Remember it took his teammate Gavin Floyd a few years to really develop so hopefully Gordon is nearing his stride. He’s batting .338 in the past month.

Starlin Castro 16% owned
3 R, 1 RBI, 2 SB, .600
Well, Starlin stole home last Thursday so isn’t that reason enough to pick him up on your team? Ok, maybe not, but he has a six game hitting streak going into tonight and is batting just shy of .300 since the call up. I don’t think we will see anything mind blowing from Castro this year, but he may just prove to a few owners that he is keeper material, especially in a weak SS position.

Matt Diaz, 2% owned
3 R, 2 HR, 5 RBI, .417
Diaz saw a some extra playing time in the past week but Jason Heyward is back and no matter how good Matt play’s he won’t be forcing the Braves future all-star to the bench.

Kevin Kouzmanoff 18% owned
3 R, 1 HR, 7 RBI, .385
Kouz is right on par with similar numbers to years previous. If he gets a full 600 AB, you may be able to squeeze 20+ homers from him. At least he’s keeping the average above .270.

Justin Smoak 10% owned
3 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI, .333
The Smoak has cleared and the Mariners are hoping they have found their future first baseman. Justin had back to back games with homers against the Angels this week.

Drew Stubbs 28% owned
2 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, .500
Stubbs has put up very respectable numbers in his 2nd year, considering how ice cold he started the season. He’s already almost at 50 Runs and RBIs and I would be shocked if he doesn’t end up with 30-35 stolen bases by the end of year. The power is a great addition too, having his second multi-homer game of the season against Colorado.

HURLERS

Paul Maholm 17% owned
9 IP, 1 W, 1 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.33 WHIP
Maholm wins the Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hyde award this month. Against Texas he pitched one inning and gave up 5 runs. In the next game against Chicago he turned it around and pitched eight strong while only giving up one. Then against Philly he imploded in three innings and gave up seven runs. Back comes Dr. Jeckyll against the Brewers and Houston, giving up 6 hits in 16 innings with the later being a CG. I’m scared shirtless (yes shirtless – there may be kids in the room) to pick him up in fear of another bomb.

Edinson Volquez 51% owned
6 IP, 1 W, 9 K, 1.50 ERA, 0.83 WHIP
The long awaited return of Volquez was a nothing less than a gem. Going six strong while only surrendering one earned run and blanking nine. As George Constanza once said “I’m back baby!”

Jeanmar Gomez 0% owned
7 IP, 1 W, 4 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.86 WHIP
Don’t get too excited with the fantastic line Gomez put up this week. Jeanmar was just optioned back to Triple-A today. Don’t really get that one, seeing as how Cleveland is horrible and they should keep any pitcher up who can actually get them a win.

Aaron Cook 2% owned
7 IP, 1 W, 5 K, 0.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP
Nice game against Cincinnati but there are other pitchers out there in the depths of the wire who have a better ERA (4.56), better WHIP (1.45) and more Ks (49).  

Jason Vargas 37% owned
7.2 IP, 1 W, 9 K, 1.17 ERA, 0.65 WHIP
Vargas has been a pleasant surprise all season long and continued to show his dominance against the Angels, striking out nine. His 2.97 ERA puts him seventh in the AL and his 1.15 WHIP is eighth. Owners are slowly realizing what a gem Vargas is for their teams.

Sean Marshall 22% owned
2.2 IP, 1 W, 5 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.38 WHIP
There are few top notch set-up men this year and Marshall is definitely one of them. Sean is averaging more than a K per inning and already has amounted six wins. ERA under two, WHIP at one and batters hitting under .200. Find a spot on your roster for this guy, he’ll help you in categories without you even realizing it.

Alex Sanabia 1% owned
5.1IP, 1 W, 5 K, 0.00 ERA, 1.12 WHIP
Sanabia got his first win this week against the Nationals. In the past two games, Sanabia has pitched 8.2 innings and given up zero runs, plus K’d seven. Certainly worth keeping this rookie on your watch list.

Written by Evan Marx. Check back weekly for Evan’s Must or Bust, bad humor and boyish charm.
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