Players That Are Hot

I’m tired. I had a long day filled with lots of work from writing, editing and posting of football, baseball and hockey stories, including a bunch of rather fantastic hockey articles at Fanball as well. And yes, before you ask, some of them were written by yours truly.

Joey Votto continues to bash pitchers with alacrity over the final month of the season. Votto went 4-for-5 on Wednesday night as he pushed his average up to almost .370 on the month. Votto is now hitting .308 with 22 homers and 74 RBI in a mere 433 ABs on the season. If we push those numbers out to 550 ABs we end up with a .308-28-94 line, and that would obviously suggest that a potential .300-30-100 season could be in the way in 2010 from this sweet swinging lefty.

Votto’s teammate, Homer Bailey, seems to have finally, f-i-n-a-l-l-y figured things out at the big league level. Though he has a 5.02 ERA on the year, he has finally started to throw strikes and the results have been pretty striking. After allowing two runs in six innings against the Pirates Bailey has now allowed three or fewer earned runs in each of his last seven starts while posting a 1.99 ERA. It’s a small sample size for sure, but keep his name in mind in the late rounds in 2010 as a selection of Bailey could result in a nice return.

Welcome back to hitting right-handed Carlos Guillen. Guillen went deep from both sides of the plate on Wednesday night in just his second game since returning to action from that injured shoulder, and this was just the second game that he has even attempted to hit right-handed in. This was the fourth time in his career that he had gone deep from both sides of the dish in the same game.

What is it about the second half and Adam LaRoche? You think it’s frustrating as a fantasy owner – can you just imagine just how hard it is on LaRoche when he knows, he literally knows, he is gonna stink for about two plus months before turning into a dominating force at the dish. LaRoche is hitting .355 with 36 RBI in 47 games since returning to Atlanta. Any doubt where he wants to sign when his contract is up after the season? Jeez, this is another first baseman isn’t it? I’m telling you, they are just everywhere

Another youngster, Bud Norris, has looked pretty solid this season for the Astros even if it hasn’t always been a smooth ride. He tossed six scoreless innings at the Cards on Wednesday to lower his ERA to just barely over 1.50 in his last four starts. With 54 Ks in 55.2 innings he has shown the ability to put hitters away, and as they say, you can’t teach stuff, and he’s got that in spades. A bright future this kid has (channeling my inner Yoda).

I thought that David Ortiz was washed up? He may be hitting only .234 but he has 25 homers and 88 RBI, so he has still been fairly productive despite an OPS below .800. OK, he is only sort of washed up.

Nick Punto hitting .327 in September as the Twins try and clay there way to the playoffs. Just saying.

How stupid do the Red Sox feel right now? John Smoltz worked another night of magic for the Redbirds allowing just two runs over six innings against the Astros. In six starts with Cardinals his ERA is 3.18 and his WHIP 1.00. With the Red Sox try on an 8.32 ERA and a 1.70 WHIP. Guess he was tipping those pitches eh? Either that or he and/or Dave Duncan made a deal with Lucifer that involved someone giving over their soul.

We got ourselves quite the race for the NL RBI crown. Here is how things stand after action on Wednesday night:

Prince Fielder – 131
Ryan Howard – 130
Albert Pujols – 129

They all play first base by the way, further proof of just how loaded that position is in the game today. No idea how the situation resolves itself, but can you really bet against Mr. Pujols when it has anything to do with baseball?

By Ray Flowers