It's Friday. I miss Vegas. Football is going on. Baseball is going on. Where is my vodka Red Bull? I'm a mess. I have no plan. I have no strategy. My article today will reflect that. I'll talk recent hot/cold streaks, give my top-5 animated films of all-time, and likely drop him some extremely poignant and relevant baseball tidbits to help you out in your push down the stretch.
LAST 30 DAYS HITTERS
Carl Crawford is hot, hot, hot. He's batting .397 with a 1.026 OPS. That's better than the .984 mark of Jose Abreu.
Part time players: Daniel Descalso (.353 in 43 PAs), Peter Bourjos (.350 in 45 PAs), Ramon Santiago (.333 in 42 PAs).
Leonys Martin is batting .385 with seven steals. Oh, I forgot to note that Crawford has eight steals the last 30 days didn't I?
Martin Prado .359 with five homers. His slow start hurt his overall effort but the numbers will still be solid.
Buster Posey is batting .412 with seven homers, 25 RBIs and 22 runs scored in 24 games.
Justin Turner, who?, is batting .397 with a .997 OPS.
And now the ugly...
Tommy Medica has a .045 batting average.
Gregory Polanco has .073 batting average.
Allen Craig has a .087 batting average.
Brandon Moss has no homers, two RBIs and a .119 batting average, Woof.
Javier Baez has four homers, three steals and 13 runs scored. He's also batting .147 with a .519 OPS.
I started to write that B.J. Upton is batting .170... but then I realized that's not really that far off his norm.
Seth Smith has collapsed. He's batting .179 with no homers. He's now batting .270 with 12 homers and 43 RBIs. Did you listen when the warnings about him were uttered?
Yasiel Puig has hit .195 with no homers and one steal. Denard Span has a better batting average (.299 to .290). Garrett Jones has more homers (14 to 13). Khris Davis has more RBIs (68 to 60). Matt Holliday has more runs (74 to 74). Chris Heisey has more steals (nine to eight). #JustSaying
Will Middlebrooks stinks. He's always hurt and under-performing. The last 30 days he's hit .200 with no homers.
Somehow Alexei Ramirez has scored 14 runs despite a .232 OBP.
Hanley Ramirez is batting .211 with a homer and two steals.
FIND ME A MATE
We were doing the LIVE ADVICE session today – we do it every Friday at 2 PM EDT – and someone asked if I had seen Wes Welker's wife. Since I'm not a creeper I said no. I then looked her up. I wish I had looked sooner. She is gorgeous. It got me to thinking. Why don't I have a lady in my life that looks like that? I know I'm not on the cover of GQ, and I'm not rich, but I'm the Oracle. That should matter, right? So here is what I propose. We start a drive to find me a special lady. I don't want her to be paid for, I don't want her to have an IQ of a turnip either, but I do want her to be extremely attractive. So, who is with me?!
And go...
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LAST 30 DAYS PITCHERS
Clay Buchholz remembered how to pitch. Don't know if you can ever full trust him, but over his last six starts he's 3-1 with a 3.14 ERA.
Carlos Carrasco has been stupendous. He's “only” 3-0 but he has a 0.80 ERA, 10.16 K/9 and 1.07 BB/9. He's allowed 23 hits and four walks in 33.2 innings.
Mike Fiers, despite what happened last night with Giancarlo Stanton, has been splendiferous. He's 5-1 with a 1.86 ERA and an 11.41 K/9 mark.
Miguel Gonzalez, the guy no one really wants, has been r-o-l-l-i-n-g. In four starts he's gone 3-1 with a 0.94 ERA. The key? Two-fold. (1) He's kept the ball in the yard allowing just two big flies. (2) He's not walking anyone issuing just five free passes.
Dan Haren haters – shut your mouth. Over his last five starts he's won three games with a 1.55 ERA and 0.93 WHIP for the Dodgers. He finishing hard, which I have to admit, I didn't expect.
Tyler Matzek is hard to trust given that he pitches for the Rockies, but the results are there the last month. He's 3-3 but the rest of his line looks solid: 2.57 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 8.14 K/9, 3.21 BB/9 and 0.64 HR/9 ratio.
Collin McHugh continues to roll. In his five starts he's gone 4-0 with a 1.85 ERA. He's also sporting an impressive 5.20 K/BB ratio as he simply isn't beating himself.
And now the ugly...
Chris Archer is being held together by super glue. He's 2-2 with a 4.75 ERA and 1.47 WHIP over 36 innings. Be very selective with using him.
Yovani Gallardo is tanking. He's gone 1-3 with a 4.55 ERA and 12, twelve, strikeouts in 27.2 innings. Yikes.
Why are we still talking about Kyle Gibson? Are we still talking about Kyle Gibson? I guess I'm talking about Kyle Gibson. Over his last six starts he has one victory a 6.34 ERA and 1.65 WHIP. I tried to tell you.
Sonny Gray has a 1-2 record, 4.96 ERA and 1.29 WHIP. It's a long season folks, and until youngster prove they can handle 30+ starts you should always be leery of youngsters late in the year.
Scott Kazmir has one win a 5.97 ERA and 1.45 WHIP over his last six outings even after allowing one run over eight innings Thursday. That's how bad he was before that.
TOP-5 ANIMATED MOVIES
1 Fritz the Cat
2 The Nightmare Before Christmas
3 South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
4 Wreck-It Ralph
5 Fantasia
Listen to Ray Flowers' show Monday through Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear me hosting my own show Sunday nights, 7-10 PM EDT.