Roto Roundup Fantasy Baseball: Week of August 1st

Roto Roundup is a weekly feature highlighting fantasy players who are trending upward or downward over recent weeks.  We'll identify players you should attempt to trade or trade for, as well as players you should pick up from free agency, or cut bait with and send to free agency.

Godzilla is back:  Hideki Matsui has flown under the radar in Oakland, and hasn't performed up to expectations to be honest.. except over the past 14 days.  Matsui has posted a .511 average, 1.436 OPS, scored 11 runs, and hit 3 HRs with 14 RBIs over the past 2 weeks, and should be targeted in all leagues while he's hot.  He's only 24% owned in Yahoo! leagues and has skyrocketed from 10.8% ownership to 55.2% ownership in ESPN leagues over the past 7 days.  Matsui is a good hitter, and could just be finding his way back to the respectable lines he generally posts.  He's an aging hitter, but throw a flyer Godzilla's way, he won't bite.

Leaving a salty taste: In Boston, Jarrod Saltalamacchia has quietly been very solid at catcher for the Red Sox, and may finally be living up to the hype that accompanied him as a top prospect in his early years.  On the season, "Salty" has posted a very respectable .261/.327/.464 line at catcher, with 9 HRs, 34 RBIs, and 32 runs.  While the counting stats don't jump out at you necessarily, his June and July slash lines should. 

June: .327/.407/.538, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 8 R in 52 AB
July: .283/.343/.550, 4 HR, 14 RBI, 12 R in 60 AB

Those are definitely strong lines, and would make him one of the better catchers in fantasy baseball if he played every night.  The problem is, he's not a full-time starter and struggles against left-handed pitchers.  However, in a daily league, playing him whenever he's in the lineup is highly advised.  Hitting behind Carl Crawford and the middle of the Red Sox order, Saltalamacchia's counting totals will rise if Boston is smart and starts Salty full time. 

Resurgent Raul:  Philadelphia has dealt with Raul Ibanez and his mediocre bat for three months, but in July, he finally perked up.  Over the past 30 days, Raul has delivered 7 HRs, 26 RBIs, a .301 AVG and .934 OPS.  He's only 35% owned in Yahoo! leagues so jump on him now, while you still can.

Buy Bourgeois: With the recent trades of Hunter Pence and Michael Bourn, Jason Bourgeois seems to finally have a regular spot in the lineup.  In only 131 ABs, the speedster has stolen 22 bases, and hit .344 with a .798 OPS.  He's a speed demon, and one that should be far more owned than he is currently (19% in Yahoo! leagues, 42.4% in ESPN).  He could provide your team a good 20-25 steals down the stretch given his blistering speed and what seems to be free control to steal whenever he chooses, along with a tidy .300 average.

Party Like It's 2005 Again:  Derrek Lee is hitting like the former Triple Crown contender he once was over the past 14 days.  He's hit 5 HRs and 12 RBIs with a .317 average and 1.096 OPS.  In his Pittsburgh debut yesterday, he hit 2 homers.  Pittsburgh definitely upgraded at first base, and now he'll probably move right in to the cleanup spot or 3 hole in the lineup.  McCutchen is now batting leadoff until Jose Tabata or Alex Presley is back, so hopefully McCutchen can cause chaos on the basepaths and help Lee's production.  He's a decent option as a fill-in at 1B or a UTIL while he's hot, but don't count on him long term for production.
Do The Duda: After the Mets traded Carlos Beltran away, they handed the RF job to Lucas Duda.  While most of you probably don't even know who he is, you should make yourself familiar with him, soon.  Over the past 14 days, he has 3 HRs, 8 RBI, 7 R, a .314 AVG and a 1.034 OPS.  He's a top-100 player in Yahoo! over that span, and should be added in deeper leagues if you're in need of a outfielder and one of the other options listed in this post isn't available.  He's only 3.7% owned in ESPN and 3% owned in Yahoo! so jump on him early rather than later.  He displayed power in AAA, hitting 10 HRs in 38 games before getting the call up to New York, so he can help your team in a deep league immediately.

Playing the Porcello:  Don't look now, but Rick Porcello is turning things around and making up for time lost.  In June, the young pitcher threw 32 innings, struck out 24, and posted a 3.06 ERA with a 1.05 WHIP and 5 wins.  He's been more aggressive with his pitching, and has had firmer control of his fastball, as his walks are down.  He's only 16% owned in Yahoo! and ESPN leagues, and could definitely help those in 14-team mixed leagues or deeper leagues.  I still don't think he's a must-start (I would avoid his upcoming turn against Texas), but he's definitely a useful pitcher right now for deep leagues.

Needing Niemann:  Ever since the beginning of July when he came off the DL, Jeff Niemann has been lights out for the Rays.  He's only allowed 5 runs over the month (.96 ERA), with a .89 WHIP, and has two double-digit strikeout games.  The towering 6'9" tall righty has found his 2009 form again, posting a 3.51 ERA for the year.  Niemann has top prospect pedigree, and is useful in most formats given his strong K numbers.  He's owned in 47.9% of ESPN leagues, but merely 30% owned in Yahoo! leagues.  12-team mixed leaguers could benefit from at least streaming Niemann (especially this week against Oakland), if not adding him to their roster for good.

Release Rios!  For some ungodly reason, 51% of Yahoo! owners still roster Alex Rios.  This is a newsflash to all those owners, as I was a Rios owner for a while.  He's not returning to form this year, cut him.  His .207 AVG is second lowest of any qualified AL hitter (Adam Dunn is the lowest!), and he isn't even producing counting stats, as he has 6 HRs and 8 SBs on the year.  Alejandro De Aza has taken over in center field for him, and played far better in his short time.  If that's not damning enough, I don't know what to tell you.