Will Jose Bautista and Corey Hart Keep Slugging after the All-Star Break

Al Melchior, Data Analyst for CBSSports.com created a rather interestinginteractive tool for you to use. It measures the players ISO. More specifically this interactive table can be used to located MLB players with the Highest Isolated Power Rates.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have some of these sluggers on my team this year.  

This first line of “By the Numbers: Can Bautista, Hart keep Mashing?” reads,

"When we posted the Power Leaderboard for the first time last month, it seemed odd to see Jose A. Bautista, Corey C. Hart and Kelly Johnson nestled among other more familiar power sources like Justin Morneau, David Ortiz and Jayson Werth.

Yet here we are heading into the Fourth of July weekend, and two of the three are still hanging around. Johnson continues to hit doubles at a frenzied pace, but with just one home run for the month of June, he couldn't keep pace with the other inhabitants of the leaderboard. Bautista and Hart, though, have not only remained among the leaders in Isolated Power (the rate at which a hitter gets extra bases), but both have climbed further up the charts in the past month. They rank first and third, respectively, among all major leaguers in this category."

Click Here For Interactive Version

Of those I have or have had Bautista, Hart, Johnson, and Morneau.

Jose Bautista 3B,OF – Bautista offers infield/outfield position flexibility and has a High ISO. Meaning Bautista will continue hitting bombs this year, he just needs to continue swinging the bat well and make contact.

Corey Hart  OF – Brewers breakout this year had been the subject of trade talks earlier this year, but has taken a stance. Hart is putting up career-high numbers this season, and is among other hitters like CWS Alex Rios who are benefiting from dropping their hands in his batting stance this season.

Kelly Johnson 2B – Diamondbacks secondbasemen was a tremendous free agent pickup for my fantasy team this season when Ian Kinsler started the year off on the DL with a high ankle sprain. Many people forget for the first third of the season Johnson was among the league-leading home run hitters.

Justin Morneau 1B – The Twins first-basemen may be stepping out from behind catcher Joe Mauers shoes this season. Morneau has led all three triple categories for most of the season with Miguel Cabrera right beside him.

Miguel Cabrera 1B Det - fills my regular first basemen slot on my fantasy team, and I use Justin Morneau as a full-time Utility player.

Check to See if your Players are on this Chart

Oakland Athletics and Week 14s Fantasy Hitting Planner and Sleepers

Check out Week 14s Fantasy Hitting Planner by Eric Mack, a senior fantasy writer for CBS sports!

First take a look at this week’s “Best Five Hitting Schedules”

Best Five Hitting Schedules
	Team	Schedule
1.	Rangers	CLE3, BAL4
2.	Orioles	@DET3, @TEX4
3.	Phillies	ATL3, CIN4
4.	Giants	@MIL4, @WAS3
5.	Rays	BOS3, CLE4

Oakland Athletics

OF Coco Crisp – Since returning from the DL Coco Crisp has gone 10/23 with 2 HRs and three stolen bases. He’s hitting .435 in the last six games, and is returning back to the level of play he had with the Cleveland Indians.


SS Cliff Pennington – Had a strong June performance and looks to be carrying into July. He is hitting .49- over his last 15 games.

3B Kevin Kouzmanoff – has started cooling after starting the month of June hot recording only 2 hits in the last five games.


OF Raji Davis, is no longer an everyday player with the return of red-hot Coco Crisp. Jack Cust, Ryan Sweeney, and Gabe Ross now are fighting for playing time Oakland’s outfield.


Each weeks fantasy planner also includes a list of the top 10 sleepers for that week. A sleeper must be started in less than 70 percent of CBSSports.com fantasy leagues. 

Scott's top sleepers for Week 14
	Player	Start %
1.	Miguel Olivo, C, Rockies	58
2.	Gaby Sanchez, 1B, Marlins	45
3.	Buster Posey, C, Giants	60
4.	Erick Aybar, SS, Angels	41
5.	Russell Branyan, 1B, Mariners	16
6.	Miguel Tejada, 3B, Orioles	69
7.	Raul Ibanez, OF, Phillies	48
8.	Pat Burrell, OF, Giants	9
9.	Matt Wieters, C, Orioles	67
10.	Michael Bourn, OF, Astros	46
* Sleepers are players started in less than 70 percent of CBSSports.com leagues

Other notable players:
Cleveland Indians:
o    Matt LaPorta
o    Carlos Santana 
Jose Tabata Pittsburgh Pirates

“The Fantasy Baseball Hitting Planner is the essential guide to setting your lineup for the upcoming week. Every week, we provide you with news and notes for each team, tracking hot and cold players, injuries and lineup changes."
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The Atlanta Braves Bullpen and Week 14s Fantasy Pitching Planner

Check out Week 14s Fantasy Pitching Planner by Eric Mack, a senior fantasy writer for CBS sports! I want to highlight a sleeper bullpen that has been overshadowed by the San Diego Padres bullpens

The Atlanta Braves who are now rejoined by starting pitcher Jair Jurrjens. All of the Braves starting pitchers matchups look good this week and my new favorite prospect is a “One-Week Sleeper” in this week’s pitching planner.

Atlanta Braves Rotation

RHP Derek Lowe – Faces two aces this week. Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Halladay and the New York Mets breakout star Mike Pelfrey

RHP Tommy Hanson – Had been a little shaky of late but in his last start was back to getting Ks. Hanson has been a tremendous player for fantasy owners with some stellar outings this season. He does it big though, blowups included.

RHP Tim Hudson – is on the road facing the struggling New York Mets pitcher Takahashi.

RHP Kris Medlen – I’ve been telling you about Oakland Athletics young prospect Trevor Cahill, now its time to tell you about Medlen. In his last eight outings he is 5-0. On the season he is 6-1 with a 3.19ERA, 64Ks, 16BBs, 1.15WHIP.

RHP Jair Jurrjens – Recently rejoined the starting rotation, and had 2 solid outings after missing the last two months with a strained left hamstring. In those outings, he has recorded 1 Win while surrendering only 8 hits and striking out 10K.

Closer – Billy Wagner – Having a career year and if he plays one more year could be the all-time saves leader. He’s the greatest left-handed closer of all-time if he is somehow a free agent – make room in your lineup.

All Atlanta Braves matchups in this week’s fantasy pitching planner look  

1. Tommy Hanson at NYM Dickey 
2. Tim Hudson at NYM Takahashi 
3. Derek Lowe at PHI Halladay, at NYM Pelfrey 
4. Jair Jurrjens at PHI Hamels 
5. Kris Medlen at PHI Moyer 

Each weekly planner offers insight into every bullpen around the league, so if you’ve been considering an Add or Trade – Take a look!

Get all the news on Week 14s:

- Two-Start pitchers

- Who’s getting skipped

- One-week sleepers

- One-week busts

Stephen Strasburg – Not an All-Star Yet!

Washington Nationals phenomena Stephen Strasburg will have to wait another year for his 1^st All-Star appearance. Strasburg was a major topic of debate heading into this weekend. It was a tough decision, and I think rather easy to understand both viewpoints.

The Major League Baseball All-Star game should be respected and its integrity needs to be upheld. All other major sports in the U.S. have All-star games that are nothing more than watered down exhibition games.  The NBA is the worst at putting players on the All-Star team that don’t deserve to be on the team.

Strasburg may be good enough to make the All-Star team, but he hasn’t earned it yet. Yes, we all know he will but the fact of the matter remains that he doesn’t have a body of work to back up what we all believe to be true.  

But we all want to see him! It seems unthinkable we would deny ourselves of the timeless memory of watching Strasburg not only play but start in his rookie season All-Star Game.

The USA Today Daily pitch reported,

The NL staff, as announced Sunday will include Nationals' closer Matt Capps, but not Strasburg.

"He got quite a bit of consideration, I haven't seen the guy pitch live yet," NL manager Charlie Manuel said. "Leave him alone, let him pitch. He's going to be an All-Star for a long time." Read More 

 Jeff Passan of Yahoo!Sports wrote in a July 4^th post, “One can look at the All-Star Game in two ways. 

The first is as a showcase for the fans, which is supported by MLB allowing them to vote the starters. No player drives fan interest today like Strasburg. Bring him on board – or, better yet, allow the fans to vote him in – and watch ratings for the game and interest in it soar.

The second is as a game with real implications: World Series home field. Managers should, then, pick the best players for their teams. Only in Manuel’s world, where Omar Infante deserves an All-Star bid, Arthur Rhodes(notes) andEvan Meek(notes) are better equipped to help the NL win than Strasburg.

Like Manuel said, he’ll make plenty of All-Star teams going forward, and so will …” Read More

Regardless of how Strasburg may feel or what we selfishly may want to see, we are both going to half to wait till next year.