By Dalton Del Don – Senior Writer
Just when I start to completely write him off, Khalil Greene starts showing legit power. Over his last 19 games, Greene has clouted eight homers with 17 RBI. He strikes out way too often to ever bat much better than .250, but he is quietly on pace to finish the season with 28 bombs, 95 RBI and 89 runs. Not bad for a shortstop who plays in Petco Park.
Aaron Rowand has turned in a real solid first half, but he looks like a good sell-high guy to me. His BABIP (.345) is much higher than his career level (.316), and there’s the very real possibility of injury with the way he plays center field so aggressively.
I see your future Dick Harden, and it involves Dr. Lewis Yocum and a large knife.
Dan Uggla has 51 extra-base hits this season, one off the MLB-leader (Chase Utley). How about two second basemen occupying those top spots? Curtis Granderson has 15 triples, five more than second place (Jimmy Rollins).
In medium to deeper sized formats, you might want to take a flier on Lastings Milledge. His long-term playing time isn’t guaranteed this season, but Moises Alou’s health is always a concern, and Milledge is probably a better hitter than Shawn Green right now anyway. With his power/speed potential, Milledge could be a fantasy asset immediately, even if he’s not a big help in batting average.
Time to hand out the first half awards:
NL MVP: Prince Fielder – Leads the league in slugging percentage and homers, while ranking second in OPS and RBI. Is a big reason why the previously moribund Brewers sport the second-best record in the Senior Circuit.
NL Cy Young: Jake Peavy – Lots of worthy candidates here, as Brad Penny, Chris Young and even John Maine deserve consideration. While Peavy has Petco Park to his advantage, in the end, he’s thrown the most innings of the group and leads the league in strikeouts and WHIP.
AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez – First, let’s take a look at his main competitor, Magglio Ordonez – He’s been lucky (.388 BABIP), but it’s tough to argue with a 1.050 OPS accompanied by a 37/47 K/BB ratio. Mags leads the majors in doubles (35), batting average (.367) and is second only to Barry Bonds in OBP (.446). However, A-Rod has an MLB-best 30 homers playing in an extremely difficult park on right-handed hitters, while also leading the league in total bases (212) and the AL in OPS (1.078). He has a .61 points advantage in slugging percentage over Mags and is on pace for 164 RBI (and it’s not like he has a huge lineup advantage, as he’s batted with just five more men on base this season than Ordonez has). A-Rod also contributes on the base paths more and plays the more difficult/important defensive position. If you are the type that places great importance on team position in the standings, then I can see you going the other way. But there’s no denying that A-Rod has been the best hitter in the game this season.
AL Cy Young: Dan Haren – While John Lackey, Josh Beckett, Justin Verlander and C.C. Sabathia have had fine seasons, this comes down to Johan Santana and Haren to me. It’s very close – Santana has 24 more strikeouts, and when you include unearned, both have allowed the same amount runs on the season. Still, Haren’s done a superior job of limiting homers with the best split-finger fastball in the game and has pitched 8.1 more innings while allowing just four more baserunners. I’ll give it to Haren now, because it’s Santana who’s likely to be taking home the hardware when it counts – over the last four seasons, he’s 40-4 after the All-Star break.
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