That's Hot. Baseball's Hottest Players Over the Last Two Weeks

I've been playing fantasy baseball on Yahoo Sports for over a decade.  I think I've stuck with them and not switched to CBS or ESPN because they're constantly upgrading their pages and style and giving the users new stuff every year.  It's simple things too, nothing extravagant.  Not saying there's anything wrong with the other sites, I just don't use them because I don't have to.  I have no complaints with Yahoo.  

I can't recall if it was last year or this year, but they now let you look through a free agents last 7, 14, or 30 days.  I remember the 30 days because I would constantly look at a smaller sample size to see who is on a hot streak.  I know they've had the last week for a long time too.  But now you can basically split the difference and see the last 14 days.  I like that.

So today I've sorted through the highest ranked players over the last 14 days, and of course there are some interesting results.  Yahoo Ranking over the last two weeks in parentheses.  

Ben Zobrist (1) .347/.377/.755, 4 HR, 18 RBI, 13 R, 3 SB

Zobrist made headlines with his 8 RBI game and 10 total RBI day on April 28th.  He's ridden that to the #1 ranking in Yahoo over the last 14 days.  That streak started with an 0-for-5 game, so if you just look at his last 11 games he's hitting .387 with all those other pretty numbers.  He's raised his batting average by 78 points.

Adam Lind (2) .423/.439/.750, 5 HR, 16 RBI, 10 R

Lind broke out in 2009 and won a Silver Slugger award.  Then him and buddy Aaron Hill fell off a cliff last year and we were left wondering "What happened?"

Apparently Lind isn't a dead fish afterall.  (Same as Zobrist)  During one 8-game run Lind hit .531/.528/.1000 with the 5 HR and 13 of the RBI's.  You are probably wondering the same thing as I am.  "What's up with the walks Lind?"  Lind has never been patient at the plate, but his 5.3 bb% is far off from the 8.9% he put up in 2009.  At least he's doing the rest of the game well.

Jose Bautista (4) .464/.667/.1.214, 5 HR, 9 RBI, 13 R, 2 SB

Missing a few games hasn't hurt Bautista in the rankings at all.  Over just 10 games he smashed 5 HR and scored 13 times.  He even chipped in a couple stolen bases.  If you go back to "on pace for" that I wrote about yesterday, Bautista would be on an 82 HR, 65 double season pace with 211 hits and runs.  (In 2004, Ichiro had a streak of hits that lasted longer than two months which would have paced him for 325 hits over a full season.  And he did that for almost 2 and a half months.)

Bautista will be back to terrorize pitchers soon.

Jason Bourgeois (18) .481/.533/.667, 0 HR, 6 RBI, 5 R, 6 SB

Bourgeois is a 29 year old journeyman who played in 99 major league games coming into this season.  His speed is his greatest asset and he's using that to get more regular playing time in Houston.  Am I telling you to pick him up?  He's only 8% owned after all.  But he might only be good for a few stolen bases while he's hot.  He won't hit over .400 all year long.

Roy Halladay (5) 3-0, 1.46 ERA, 24.2 innings, 32 K's, 2 bb's

Just Roy being Roy, Halladay has won his last 3 starts and his 9.6 K/9 this season is the highest of his career.  So he's actually being better than Roy.  The future Hall of Famer has fine tuned his game to be the without-a-doubt best pitcher in the game.  Yes, he's pitched @SD, NYM, and WAS in his last 3 starts, but he mowed them all down just the same and his K/BB ratio is also the highest of his career.  Kickin' it with Cliff Lee may be helping him refine his own game.

James Shields (14) 1-0, .53 ERA, 17 innings, 19 K's, 3 bb's

Despite only having 2 starts in the time frame, and only winning one start (a large part of the rankings is predicated on wins for pitchers) Shields is ranked 15th in the game.  Against Toronto and LAA he gave up 10 hits and allowed 1 ER while walking just 3.  The Rays have won his last 4 starts and Shields has given up 4 ER in 33 innings during that time with 32 K's and just 6 bb's.  This is what many were expecting from Shields last season.

Ian Kennedy (27) 1-0, 1.99 ERA, 22.2 innings, 21 K's, 4 bb's

Kennedy shut out the Phillies with 10 K's and 0 bb's on April 25th and he's stayed hot.  A part of the big three-team trade with New York and Detroit, Kennedy was a disappointment in the Big Apple, but has been a solid starter in Arizona.  He got crushed by the Cardinals early in the season, but has been focused since then.  He still leads the league in wild pitches (4) which is something he also did last season (16)