Francisco Rodriguez blew the save, his third in 10 days.  Nothing new here.  Frankie has averaged 5.5 blown saves per season since becoming a full time closer, which is about the norm. 

This is what I worried about with Kevin Correia.  His fastball velocity was back a little yesterday, but not where it was during is hot streak.  You can see from the chart below (via fangraphs.com) the upward trend in Correia's average velocity and how it dropped significantly his last outing.  Yesterday's outing is represented with the red dot, which indicates an average fastball velocity of just over 91 mph.

A.J. Happ is becoming an interesting starter to watch.  Since converting to a full time starter he has shown a nice progression in K/BB rate.  Also, Happ's velocity is showing signs of progression as well.  He's currently owned in only 37% of Yahoo! Leagues.  

Franklin Gutierrez stays hot.  He hit .304 with 4 homers and 3 stolen bases in June. 

Pitchers are not giving anything to Albert Pujols and he'll take his walks all day long.  The beneficiary?  Ryan Ludwick.  It's been a struggle this season with healthy and a prolonged slump, but he has 7 hits in his last 5 games and 3 RBI in his last 2 games with Pujols getting on in front of him.

Derrek Lee didn't just hit 2 homeruns last night.  He hit 2 pure bombs last night.  One was a grand slam and Lee collected 7 RBI on the night.  Lee hit .333 and slugged .973 in June. 

Will there be a place for Jake Fox to play once A-Ram returns from the DL?

I think I'm done betting against Mark Buehrle.

Cody Ross hit his 14th bomb of the season of newly acquired Sean Burnett.  Ross is slugging .633 vs. left handed pitching this season. 

Josh Johnson left the game after only 3.1 innings.  No injury, just a rain delay and 4 walks to go with a rising pitch count.

Ricky Romero continues to impress.  He's stranding over 85% of runners and his FIP is a run higher than his ERA before his start yesterday.  Walks and the AL East are my concerns, but he's definitely a guy worth rostering right now.  He's only owned in 33% of Yahoo! leagues.

Brad Bergesen impressed against the Red Sox.  He's not going to strikeout a ton of guys, but he's keeping the ball on the ground and keeping the walks to a minimum.  His next start comes against the Mariners.  If you need a spot start, he's worth another go.

Yovani Gallardo struck out a career high 12 in 7 IP against the Mets.  If Gallardo can reduce his walk rate, he's basically Lincecum light.

Gil Meche, coming off a "dead arm" period, threw 121 pitches in only 6 innings.  His arm looked fine with a fastball sitting in the mid 90's, but minor injuries have been an issue this season.  If I'm A Meche owner (or a Royals fan) I'm not happy about the pitch count at all. 

Billy Butler, 4-4, continues to outperform James Loney, but it seems no one is paying attention. 

Jason Hammel has been pitching well for the Rockies lately.  He's not quite the ground ball pitcher Aaron Cooks is, but he is getting enough groundballs and limiting walks to be an NL-only add.

Troy Tulowitzki got cold just as fast as he got hot two weeks ago.  I think he'll finish with an AVG around .270.

Jimmy Rollins took another o'fer, but so did most of the Phillies against Jair Jurjjens who only allowed 1 hit. 

Justin Verlander was touched up last night.  That makes two less than spectacular starts in a row.  I'm not reading much into it.

Jose Contreras has struck out 8 batters in 3 of his last 4 starts.

Randy Wells pitched well again and got his third straight win.  I'd start him again at home vs the Braves in his next start. 

Johnny Cueto brought back the strikeout last night against the D-Backs.  Of course the D-Backs are second only to the Marlins in team strikeouts. 

Kevin Millwood and Jered Weaver squared off in a battle of the "sell highs".  Neither faired particularly well and neither are likely to repeat their first half numbers in the second half.

Nelson Cruz left with a back injury.  It didn't sound serious, but I never like to hear about back problems.  Keep an eye on the situation.

Albert Pujols did not hit a homerun, but he did go 2-2 with a stolen base.  Can he go 60/20!!?  Not likely, but this is just amazing to watch.

Matt Cain continues to strand runners like crazy.  8 Cardinals left on base and only 3 strikeouts. 

Adam Wainwright struck out a career high 12 in 9 innings.  He's throwing a curveball or slider on nearly 40% of his pitches.  That combined with only 132 innings pitched last season raises a bit of a red flag for potential time missed later this season. 

...the medical staff believes that they're beyond the recurrence stage. Bursitis is a painful condition, but once corrected it tends not to recur. It's just the "getting ahead of it" that often takes something like a DL stint or even minor surgery to help.

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=9075

Aaron Hill keeps on mashing.  19 homeruns now on the year. 

Brad Lidge allowed 1 hit (bunt single) and one walk, but did not allow a run to score in his action since landing on the DL.  He got the save, but his stuff and control, slider in particular, did not look so sharp. 

Tommy Hanson ran the NL East two headed monster this week and came out 2-0.  The strikeouts are not there yet, but his stuff looks very good.  I don't think he's going to make quite the impact the pre-season hype built up, but he should be a solid option the rest of the way.

Brad Penny matched up fairly well against Hanson, but was struck by the long ball twice (Chipper Jones and Garret Anderson).  I'm not a believer in Penny, but maybe Mark from Fantasy Baseball Hot Stove can convince me otherwise. 

Zack Greinke gets it done again, though he is clearly not as dominant as when the season started.  I would actually be fine with selling high on Greinke for a top-notch hitter right now.  After all Greinke did rank number 11 on Razzball's 20 Risky Pitchers for 2009.  Also, strikeouts trending down.

Since I said buy low on Wieters he has gone just about o'fer everything.  Killing me Matt, killing me. 

B.J. Upton had a 5 star day.  A homer, stolen base, 2 runs and an RBI.  Can you say HUGE second half?

Alexei Ramirez added his 10th homerun of the season yesterday.  He now has 10 homeruns and 11 steals.  More importantly "The Cuban Missle" has raised his AVG to .267.  Ramirez started out very slow last season as well.  Does his game rise with the summer heat?  I'd buy low to find out.

Brandon Inge hit a game winning homerun off of Jose Valverde.  It was Inge's 18th of the season.  I have to admit, I sort of liked the guy after his hot start to the season, but I never would have thought he'd be approaching the all-star break with close to 20 bombs.  His K/BB rate is pretty much the same as it was last season, but his HR/FB rate is through the roof. 

Matt Gamel batted leadoff yesterday.  That's interesting if it sticks.

Was this the turning point for Francisco Liriano?  Throwing 92-95 with a slider in the high 80's yesterday.  I'm still not convinced, though he kept the ball down nicely yesterday.  His last two starts have come against National League foes.  His next start against the Tigers will be a big one.

Aaron Cook continues to pull a 2008 on us.  Despite allowing 9.1 hits per 9 IP and a 1.61 K/BB rate, Cook continues to put the ball on the ground and get outs.  Look, at this point you ride em till he bucks ya. 

Jaun Rivera: 44.7% owned in ESPN leagues and 43% owned in Yahoo! Leagues.  That's up from 5.3% in ESPN and 4% in Yahoo! On June 9th, but still,  .305, 12 HR, 41 RBI...Those numbers are scary close to Carlos Lee right now. 

I am going to mention Clay Zavada for 2 reasons.  1) He's awesome. 2) Shout out to Dave from Goose Joak for this sweet 1971 Topps retro card upon request. 

Jose Lopez is now 8 for 12 in his last 3 games.  He should be in for a nice second half.

As I passed along the other day, it looks more and more like Adrian Beltre will not play through the pain much longer. 

Matt Kemp was actually able to fight off Juan Castro for the 7th spot in the Dodgers lineup yesterday.  He hit his 10th homer of the year.  I bet Mitch Kemp would bat higher than Matt Kemp if it were up to Joe Torre. 

Francisco Rodriguez had an embarrassing outing last night.  He walked three and allowed one hit, but the bases loaded walk to Mariano Rivera was the kicker.  Come on Mets fans!  I've watched Frankie pull this kind of stuff for years in Anaheim!  Consider yourself lucky he hasn't done it more often in 2009. 

Luis Castillo has reached base in all but one game since June 22nd.  So why not move him (.279 AVG, .375 OBP) to the 8th spot and hand leadoff duties to Daniel Murphy (.248 AVG, .316 OBP)?  Can a Mets fan please help me understand the wacky mind of Jerry Manuel?  

How about that Chad Gaudin fella?  One hit, 9 K in 8 1/3 innings against the slugging, albeit slumping, Rangers offense.  His strikeout numbers are huge over his last 3 starts.  His next few starts come against NL West foes.  Go ahead and ride him out.