First week risers and surprisers...

A few players I want to mention are below.  Be sure and add whoever you think needs to be here.

Colby Rasmus, Cardinals- had Sunday night off as he had played all week but probably would have sat against the LHP Randy Wolf regardless.  But through the first five games for the Cards he has hit 5th in the order every game and played CF (all against righties).  And Colby has a couple homers and a double on the season, hitting a line of .385/.619/.923.  Colby has surprised thus far by the number of base on balls.  Through his first 21 plate appearances Colby has eight walks.  Last season he had nine walks through the month of April: 68 plate appearances.  But Colby has also struck out five times this year and every time he's faced a lefty.  This is a carry over from his 2009 season where against lefties he hit.160/.219/.255 in 106 at bats including a 6:27 bb:k ratio.  His minor league numbers did not suggest such a strong downward departure facing LHP.  But it's definitely something that the Cards will have to address this season.  If things don't change much for the better Colby may not be seeing many more than 500 plate appearances in 2010.  

Chris Young, Diamondbacks- hitting .292 on the season but that OBP keeps falling.  To date, not a single base on balls through 24 at bats- only 3 k's though.  And a 3 HR/ 12 RBI week to start things off in 2010 would suggest his value may not be much higher than it is now.  Think Carlos Silva, as a hitter:  few walks, few k's= good time to get value in a trade.

Jon Rauch, Twins- Mr. Perfect.  He's a perfect 4/4 in save opportunities and a perfect answer just in time for the Twins to replace Joe Nathan this season.  Can he hang on to the job?  Beats me.  Take out his 2008 in the desert and his career stats look pretty decent.  So what gives?  In his four one inning saves, his pitch count/strikes line has went 16/11, 16/12, 15/12, 16/11.  So he is definitely not laboring.  But he's not faced the heart of a difficult line-up very often yet either, well except for the lone run that's been scored against him by the middle of the Angels batting order.   There are a couple stats that jump out at me.  One is that in two of his four appearances Rauch has given up two hits in an inning.  The other is the stolen base attempt against Rauch by the ChiSox April 9th.  The scene was an extra inning game at Chicago, bottom of the 11th, score 4-3 Twins.  One out and Alex Rios just singled.  Omar Vizquel was at the plate and Alexie Ramirez on deck.  Rios takes off for 2b and is thrown out by Joe Mauer (who had pinch hit for Drew Butera at the top of the inning).  What's concerning is Rauch is 6'11" and I have not watched him enough to see if he has a good ability to hold guys on base or not.  But if he doesn't- and that combined with Mauer's continued downward trend in his ability to throw out base runners- it could be a bad sign of things to come.  Mauer threw out a very impressive 53% of runners in 2007, certainly not a number most catchers can sustain.  But since then his CS% has dropped over 100 points a year- .363 in 2008 and a below league average .260 last season.  Anyway, Rauch has generally kept the ball in the park throughout most of his career, generally gives up fewer hits than innings pitched, has a decent WHIP and BAA.  But closing is different as there usually isn't someone to bail him out should someone get on base.  And players are hitting .313 against him on the young season.  If someone has MLBTV or one of the local Twins channels it would be nice to have a follow-up on Rauch's ability to hold guys on base.