Javier Baez and Billy Hamilton are failures. Really? Kris Bryant might be a failure. Lonnie Chisenhall has been a failure of late but overall he's been pretty solid. Flowers, Miller and Miller are a trio who has crushed it of late. Honestly. All that and more as Ray Flowers attempts to clue you in to some trends you may not have noticed.

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Javier Baez has been a disaster for the Cubs. Sure he has seven homers over just 34 games, an elite pace for a middle infielder, and he's got ESPN talking him up on a daily basis. But, you have noticed that he's batting .164 with a .209 OBP and .350 SLG, right? That's an atrocious slash line. What's even worse, and you had better be sitting down, this guy has 62 strikeouts in 140 at-bats. Folks, he's struck out in 44 percent of his at-bats. That pace over 550 at-bats would equate to 242 strikeouts which would set a record for infamy. An exciting/elite talent, he's nowhere near a finished product right now and he's paying a dear price for it. 

Kris Bryant won the Minor League Player of the Year award from Baseball America. Duh. He crushed it this year, a year after he was named College Player of the Year (the last player to pull off that double back-to-back was Alex Gordon in 2005-06).  Bryant hit .325 with 43 homers, 110 RBIs and 118 runs scored... in 138 games. He also stole 15 bases and posted a 1.098 OPS. He was the singularly dominating force in minor league baseball. He's going to be overdrafted in fantasy baseball next season. He will be productive and blast long balls, but 162 strikeouts in 492 at-bats is a scary number, and it's still uncertain which glove he will wear onto the field in 2015 for the Cubs. 

Lonnie Chisenhall had a historic level run to start the season hitting .369 over his first 43 contests. He then slowed. Then people forgot about him. Why? Chisenhall is batting .291. Anthony Rendon is batting .280. Chisenhall has 13 homers. That's the same total as Josh Harrison. Chisenhall has 55 RBIs. That's only one less than Pedro Alvarez. Chisenhall has scored 56 runs. That's two more than David Wright. He's sporting an .813 OPS which is only nine points lower than Kyle Seager. He has hit .220 over his last 44 games, but he's still had a very solid season overall. 

Tyler Flowers, my long lost cousin, hit .354 in the month of April. He then vanished from the scene for months. Guess who has reemerged? Over his last 37 games Flowers has hit .306. That alone is impressive. He's also blasted nine homers and driven in 21 runs. That's fairly astounding. Having that success, with 44 strikeouts in 124 at-bats, is shocking. Flowers is an elite, there I said it, option as a second catcher in mixed leagues right now. Never thought I would write that sentence. 

Billy Hamilton – better than I thought he would be. I was wrong about that. I admit it. At the same time, it's a long season and lookie here, Hamilton has completely stopped hitting. After a .286 mark with 38 runs driven in the first half have you noticed that he hit .222 with eight RBIs in the second? How bad has it been? His SLG in the second half is .280, six points lower than his first half batting average. I'm telling you, he really can't hit. Pretty hard for me to understand why so many folks seem to think that a .262 batting average, .299 OBP and 72 percent success rate on steals is a great season. It's not. 

Brad Miller cannot salvage his season but he's pushing hard to the finish. Did you notice? Over his last eight games he's hit .478 with two homers, six runs scored, six RBIs an a steal. It's 23 at-bats, but for those looking for a boost... speaking of Miller's...

Shelby Miller has turned around an extremely blah season with some strong work of late. His overall numbers are horrible – he's 9-9 with a 3.83 ERA, 1.30 WHIP and less than six strikeouts per nine innings – but like the other Miller he's making a late push to respectability, at least over his last four starts. During that time Miller has thrown four quality starts. He's also allowed just five runs posting a 1.67 ERA and 0.81 WHIP. The strikeouts still aren't there however – just 15 in 27 innings. 

Rick Porcello has 15 victories an a 3.30 ERA. Henderson Alvarez has 10 wins an a 2.88 ERA. Combine the two together and you end up with 208 strikeouts. The following hurlers have more strikeouts than the total of the duo: David Price (243), Max Scherzer (226), Corey Kluber (223), Felix Hernandez (217), Stephen Strasburg (215), Johnny Cueto (213) and Clayton Kershaw (210).

Tanner Roark and Jordan Zimmermann. Teammates they are. There was also a massive difference in their ADP when the season started. However, they've both killed it and posted some eerily similar numbers.

Zimmermann: 10 wins, 2.93 ERA, 1.13 WHIP with 156 Ks in 179 innings
T. Roark: 12 wins, 2.97 ERA, 1.11 WHIP with 132 Ks in 179 innings


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