TheBaseballStars

I’m a sucker for ongoing themes, they’re easy and my reader(s) love them. in that vein, I’m going to attempt to lead off every post from here on out with a Jack Cust or Milton Bradley item. As long as they keep playing this way, it will be pretty easy.

1. Bradley is a man on a mission. He’s cooled off a little (and by that I mean he’s merely holding steady, not shooting through the stratosphere), but the man leads the AL in OBP and OPS. If he’s playing against one of his former teams, watch out. Against the A’s and Indians (the two in the AL), he’s posting a roughly 1.300 OPS. I’m not going to claim he’s going to stay healthy all year, but for the first time in his career he has a manager who is resisting the urge to use him in the outfield everyday (when healthy he’s a gold glove contender) and letting him take it easy as the DH. Now, if he can just resist the urge to attack opposing umpires…

2. Adrian Gonzalez appears to have REALLY figured it out. There are a lot of things working against the Padres 1b, like the fact that he’s the Padres’ 1b and there is no 1a on offense (get it). OK, that’s not entirely fair. Gonzo is among the league leaders with 50 RBI and 16 homers, placing him among the top 5 for fantasy first basemen. But what is fair is that fact that he’s really the only steady offensive threat on a team that already has the deck stacked against it by playing in the offensive graveyard known as Petco Park. As much as I’ve doubted his ability to produce in this situation, it’s now a third into the season and this is his third straight season producing at a high level. I’m now a believer.

3. Shane Victorino is back. One of the most overlooked fantasy stars of a season ago is finally healthy and doing all the little things that help real teams win and fantasy teams dominate. Over the past month, the Flyin’ Hawaiian is second in runs scored (29), has 10 doubles, 12 rBI, has a 9:11 BB:K ratio and has 10 stolen bases, the seventh best total in that span. He’s 100 percent owned in ESPN leagues, so he’s no longer available on the super cheap, but he’s probably somebody’s No. 4 outfielder in your league. Relieve them of their burden.

4. What Victor Zambrano up to these days? Not really “I wish I knew” friendly, but there’s a punchline in here somewhere. For the unintiated, Victor Zambrano was the guy the Devil Rays gave up on and the Mets and savant pitching coach Rick Peterson saved. Oh wait, that’s totally backward. Zambrano is the pitcher the Mets WANTED to save and gave up on uber-prospect Scott Kazmir in order to do it. Zambrano is currently toiling away on the Rockies Triple-A team, sporting a 9.45 ERA and 0-6 record. Kazmir, the actual point of this post, is dominating hitters in the major leagues, posting a .95 WHIP and 1.22 ERA, while striking out about a batter per inning. So I guess the real title of this entry is something like “Scott Kazmir is master of the universe.”

5. My personal obit on Jason Bay … a little premature. It wasn’t documented here, but I won’t run from my comment just because you didn’t know about it. Anyway, I recently said I thought Bay was done. I realize he’s just 29, but that’s actually getting a little old for guys to have “bounce-back” years. More times than not, when I guy breaks out at 26 and then suddenly declines, he keeps going that way. So, Bay is an exception, I guess. He’s once again controlling the strike zone and hitting homers. Believe the numbers, not me.