Roto Roundup: Kris Medlen, Oscar Taveras, and Others

Braves starter Kris Medlen just continues to dominate hitters this season. Yesterday, he threw a complete game 5 hitter, giving up just one unearned run while walking none and striking out 12 Rockies to win his 7th game of the season. He is now 7-1 with a 1.56 ERA, a 0.96 WHIP and a 86-18 strikeout to walk ratio in 104 innings pitched. In his 7 starts this season, he has given up just 4 earned runs on 36 hits, 5 walks and 50 strikeouts in 49.2 innings pitched. He is the Braves best starter right now and is making a case for a top 30 starter ranking come 2013.

Derrick Goold from the St. Louis Post Dispatch tweeted yesterday that the Cardinals may consider calling up top hitting prospect Oscar Taveras when the AA season is over. Taveras is tearing up AA pitching to the tune of .323-.381-.576 with 23 HRs, 83 runs, 94 RBI and 11 stolen bases this season. He has reduced his strikeout rate in AA from 15.0% in Low A to just 10.6% in AA and has shown an increase in power, as evidenced by his .253 ISO this season.

Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier hit a game tying home run in the bottom of the 9th inning last night to help the Dodgers come back and defeat the Padres 4-3. Ethier recently took some advice from manager Don Mattingly and started choking up on the bat, and according to Eric Stephen over at TrueBlueLA, the results have been very good:

In the 12 games since taking manager Don Mattingly's suggestion to choke up on the bat, Ethier is hitting .457/.510/.783 with four home runs and three doubles.

For the season, Ethier is hitting .293-.362-.472 with 16 HRs, 67 runs and 79 RBI.

There is not a hotter hitter in MLB right now than Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre. Beltre homered for the third straight game on Monday, and is now hitting .318-.353-.546 with 28 HRs, 79 runs and 85 RBI. In his last 12 games, Beltre has hit 9 HRs, scored 12 runs and driven in 19 runs.

I think it was Bret Sayre who tweeted the other night that he can see Justin Upton on a bunch of his fantsay teams in 2013, and I think Upton will have an excellent bounce back season next year. Upton has struggled this season, and has been rumored to be on the trade block this offseason. Upton went 2-5 with a run and an RBI last night and is now hitting .272-350-.407 with 12 HRs, 85 runs, 55 RBI and 13 stolen bases this season. The power is down and his 33.6% fly ball rate is the worst of his career, so he may have to change his approach at the plate to take advantage of his awesome power in 2013.