Who's Hot:
- Chris Davis - I bet a grand majority of baseball fanatics had never even heard of Chris Davis before this season. He's a guy who hasn't had much of an eye-popping career up to this point. He's never hit better than .285, he's never hit more than 85 RBI in a season, and he has such a common name that he is easily forgotten. Then there's 2013. With as terrific a season as Miguel Cabrera is having, you could easily make the case that Chris Davis is having a better season. As of 5:30 PM on May 5th, Chris Davis is 3rd in the majors with a .359 average, leading the majors with 19 HRs, and is 2nd in the MLB with 50 RBI. He is leading the charge for the dynamic Orioles offense that has more runs and home runs than any other team in the big leagues, and they are right in the thick of the AL east. In his last 10 games Davis is batting a whopping .541 with 7 home runs and 10 RBI. If that's not "hot", then I don't know what is.
- Oakland Athletics - Is there a more likable team in the MLB than the Athletics (other than the Twins, of course)? They do things the right way year after year and seem to always compete despite significant disadvantages. The most obvious of those being their payroll. The A's entered this season with the 3rd lowest payroll in the major leagues with a $60M payroll (2.45 times LESS than the payroll of the Los Angeles Angels). While the Angles were busy digging into their pocketbooks to sign guys like Josh Hamilton and Joe Blanton (will be making a combined $31.5M this season), the A's were signing the likes of John Jaso and Jed Lowrie (will be making a combined $4.2M this season). Yet when you take a look at the standings in the AL West, there the A's sit..in 2nd place..5.5 games better than the Angels. The Athletics are currently tied for first place in the AL Wild Card race and seem primed for another playoff run. They are 8-2 in their last 10 games and seem to be just hitting their stride now. Why are they so hot? you may be wondering..well look no further than their stellar bullpen. The Oakland bullpen is 2nd in the MLB with a 2.84 ERA which has also helped them in 1-run games (.625 winning % in such games). Watch out for this team come playoff time.
- David Price - First of all, keep in mind that I have David Price on my fantasy baseball team. So I am extremely biased to begin with, because I spent a 4th round pick on the guy and have seen little to no production thus far. That being said, let's remember the season that Price had last year. 20-5 record. 2.56 ERA. 205 strikeouts. CY YOUNG. Sounds like the real deal, right? Now, through 9 starts, Price is boasting a 5.24 ERA and a WHIP of 1.44. There are two things that are noticeably different between Price's 2012 Cy Young season and this young 2013 season. These two things are the amount of both hits and home runs allowed. Price is on pace to allow 30 more hits and 9 more home runs than he did last season. To get even more geeky on you, Price is allowing a BABIP (batting average on balls in play) of .314, up from .285 last season and a career .280 BABIP. This is what is leading to the unusually high number of hits that Price has allowed thus far. What does this mean? Basically it means that Price is getting extremely unlucky. You would expect his BABIP to dip down to his average and the number of his hits allowed to go back down to the norm. In regards to his high number of home runs allowed (allowed 16 all of last season and has already allowed 8 this season), look no further than his HR/FB% (Home run/fly ball percentage). Last season Price had a HR/FB% of 10.5% and he has a career HR/FB% of 9.5%. This season? In 2013 Price is allowing a home run on 15.1% of all fly balls that are hit off of him. Once again, one would expect this to be an outlier and that this number will dip back to his career norm. Price has had a very disappointing 2013, but after spending a couple weeks on the DL I fully expect him to come back strong and his hits and home runs allowed numbers to go back to normal and him to get back to his Cy Young form.
- Kansas City Royals - This was supposed to be the year that the Royals FINALLY put everything together. They have the young talent, the beautiful stadium, and their owner finally decided to put some money into the team by signing big name pitchers in James Shields, Wade Davis, and Ervin Santana. They were finally going to have the arms to combine with the big bats of Billy Butler and Eric Hosmer. And they started off the season as well as they could have hoped. Through 27 games (May 5), the Royals were 17-10 and in first place in the AL Wild Card standings. Would this finally be the season the Royals figured it all out and made the playoffs for the first time since 1985? Maybe it's fitting that after 27 games the Royals all but ensured they would extend their 27 year playoff drought. Because since el cinco de mayo the Royals are 4-19 and now find themselves on the bottom of the AL central, on an 8 game losing streak, and with no signs of finding their way out of this massive hole they've dug themselves in.
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