"He's Heating Up"

Huston Street, Colorado Rockies - The job is now his and seems it will be till the inevitable trade to a contender in July.  5 straight scoreless appearances, 4 Ks, 1 BB, 2 saves

Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox - Even after Monday's win his '09 ERA is 5.11.  However, he's 2-0 in his last 4 starts (26 innings, 33 Ks, 10 walks)  Buy now before his ERA lowers even more and his cover is blown.

Trevor Hoffman, Milwaukee Brewers - The injury at the end of spring training put even more doubt into people's mind as to his '09 fantasy worth.  But since his return he's done nothing but throw strikes.  5 appearances, 5 innings, 3 hits, 0 BB, 5 Ks, 4 saves

Rod Barajas, Toronto Blue Jays - As Jorge Posada owners scramble to the FA wire they'll most likely be surprised by Barajas' recent output.  On April 22nd his OPS was .533.  He's raised it to .900+ including a 13 for 24 over the past 7 days.

Mike Napoli, Los Angeles Angels - Jonah Keri tweeted Monday evening that Mike Napoli is the most underrated player in baseball.  I'd have to agree.  After Monday night's 4/4 with 2 doubles he was hitting a cool .364/.493/.673.  All this with 2 steals thrown in. 

With Guerrero on the shelf for a while it appears that Napoli has taken away some DH ABs, and he's ready to put himself in the McCann, Mauer, Martin conversation.  Remember, this is a player who hit 20 HR in 78 games in '08 with a .960 OPS.  The guy can rake, and now he's getting more AB's.

Matt Garza - 2 good starts, 2 bad starts, 2 good starts.  The last 2 starts - 15.2, 5 hits, 2 runs, 3 BB, 12 Ks.  His WHIP sits at 1.00 and he appears to be building momentum.  His next two starts come against Cleveland (Anthony Reyes) at home and Oakland at home.

Edinson Volquez - As a 162 game owner of Volquez in '08 I grew accustomed to riding the BB/K rollercoaster.  After a difficult beginning to '09 he's been dealing in his last 2 outings.  16 innings, 4 hits, 0 earnies, 5 BB, 13 Ks.  The most interesting part of his last two starts are the 12/6 GB/FB rate in the home start and 4/11 rate in spacious Miami.  Is this a sign of maturity or a coinscidence?  I know this is a cop out but, we'll have to wait and see.

Chris Iannetta - With 4 HR in the last 5 games Iannetta is finally starting to reward his owners.  His OPS is up to .859 and 3 of the 4 HRs have come in SF and SD.  Now, the Rocks are back to Coors for 8 games against SF, FLA, HOU.

JJ Hardy - 4 hits and 3 BB with 5 RBI in his last 2 games.  His '09 BABIP is .172 . . . a correction is coming.

Curtis Granderson - Watch those Home/Road Splits.  He's at .671/1.009 for the year after another road HR on Tuesday night.  His BABIP is 75 points lower than his career average.  He's likely to up his average and lower his power output but it's a good sign that his power stroke is in midseason form.