It took me until Saturday’s two-homer game to realize that OMG, Danny Espinosa has gone bonkers. It took him until April 29th to hit his first home run of the season. He then hit five in May, nine in June, and already has three in July. Danny Espinosa. He of the career high of 21 home runs set all the way back in 2011, his first full season, in more than double the plate appearances. He who we expected, nay, knew, was just a temporary placeholder for top prospect Trea Turner, who was surely going to be up with the big club early in the season and push Espinosa to a bench role.

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It’s that time of year again, American League starting pitcher tier update time! I still pay no attention to ERA, as it’s not a metric I use for evaluation and ranking pitchers for rest of season performance. Player movement between tiers will only occur when there’s a change in underlying skill, pitch mix, or velocity. Injured pitchers with non-arm injuries expected back relatively soon will remain in the tier they had been. Pitchers with arm-related injuries with up-in-the-air return dates have been removed. I just can’t speculate on that kind of stuff.

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It’s time to speculate on a breakout minor leaguer and the potential for saves.

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It’s time for an updated list of potential HR/FB rate decliners! As usual, I scanned the batted ball distance leaderboard, matched each hitter with his HR/FB rate, and identified those hitters whose distance suggests major HR/FB rate downside. Yesterday, I looked at the potential surgers.

As a reminder, please be aware that the other two components of my xHR/FB rate equation are missing from this analysis. So to avoid giving wrong advice, I have stayed away from discussing the hitters in the middle of the distance ranking. Also remember that this ignores park effects, which certainly plays a role.

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It’s time for an updated list of potential HR/FB rate surgers! As usual, I scanned the batted ball distance leaderboard, matched each hitter with his HR/FB rate, and identified those hitters whose distance suggests major HR/FB rate upside.

Please be aware that the other two components of my xHR/FB rate equation are missing from this analysis. So to avoid giving wrong advice, it’s why I have stayed away from discussing the hitters in the middle of the distance ranking. Also remember that this ignores park effects, which certainly plays a role.

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Pitchers seemingly undergo true talent level changes far more frequently than hitters do, especially on a game by game basis. The velocity and movement of a pitcher’s pitches, along with his command, on any given day go a long way toward determining his fate. Let’s talk about two pitchers who struggled earlier in the year. One of whom we may never know for sure what the root cause of his issues were, while the other was almost surely injury related.

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I have nothing clever to say. Let’s get right to it.

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Last year, I would regularly look at the Roster Trends page on my CBS sports league site and discuss the players who were most added and dropped over the last week, ultimately concluding whether the moves were justified. I have yet to publish such an exercise this year, so figured we were overdue. Today I’ll check in on the top pickups, defined as the players whose ownership percentage in CBS leagues have increased by the highest rates.

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Last week, I discussed a multitude of players who have hit a shocking number of home runs so far this season. So today let’s check in on those on the opposite end of the spectrum, the players that beg the question…what the heck happened to your home run power?!?!?!

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Who’s inducing more swings and misses? Let’s take a gander at the American League starting pitchers whose SwStk% marks have most surged versus last year. Perhaps it’s added velocity, a new pitch, or change in pitch mix driving the spike. Let’s find out.

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