Tuesday: 2/3 Through, 14 Game Winner Failures

Adam Wainwright - 6 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (10). Not his best work, but you can afford to give up baserunners to the Pirates...odds are they won't score. He continues his nice run of mixed-league quality starts and should be owned in all leagues.

Jason Bay - 3/4, 1 R, 1 RBI. Slowly but surely he's becoming a quality hitter again. I'm hoping for a big last 2 months from his huge bust.

Fausto Carmona - 7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. 14 game winner failure #1. Unfortunately Brandon McCarthy surprisingly shut down the Indians to deny Carmona his 14th win. He still pitched well enough to get it, however.

Mike Mussina - 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W (6). Another quality start from Mussina. He's clearly taken a step back from last year, but he's still providing enough value to be used in mixed leagues consistently.

Hideki Matsui - 2/3, 4 R, 3 RBI, 2 HR (21). He ends July with a .345 AVG, 13 HR (!!), 28 RBI, and 31 R. I can't see anyone else getting AL player of the month. You really have to dig though the HR totals for the Yankees last night to find this since they hit 8 of them during batting practice, I mean their game against the White Sox last night.

Bobby Abreu - 3/4, 2 R, 3 RBI, HR (8). Abreu was another bigtime producing Yankee this month, posting a .353 AVG, 5 HR, 29 RBI, and 20 R. This is more like the Abreu that fantasy owners saw on a yearly basis in Philly, so hopefully he's turned the corner for good this time.

Alex Rodriguez - 0/5. On a night when the Yankees homered 8 times, who would have figured that A-Rod wouldn't have been among them? He's still hitless since his 499th HR, stretching that streak to 15 AB last night. Hopefully he doesn't keep this up too much longer as he tries to slug his 500th. It's obviously affecting his plate approach.

Manny Corpas - 1 IP, 1 K, SV (7). Corpas is rolling right along in the closer's role, giving up 1 run while being a perfect 7/7 in save chances. With Fuentes not having pitching in the minors yet on a rehab assignment, Corpas looks safe for a while, and there's also no guarantee that Fuentes will get his role back. I would imagine that Corpas will have to pitch himself out of the role at this point.

Erik Bedard - 6 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 5 BB, 6 K, W (11). Luckily he's quite unhittable these days as those walks would have killed most pitchers. Still, walks are not a problem for Bedard these days. Daniel Cabrera must have touched his pitching hand before the game or something.

Jamie Walker - 2/3 IP, 1 BB, SV (4). The Baltimore bullpen situation is still a mess with Ray out, likely for the season, but Walker has stepped up with 4 saves so far. Use him now, but don't think that he's the new closer. I'd still bank on Baez once he gets over his illness as being the leading candidate for saves. Walker and Bradford are too specialized to be a fulltime closer, although Baez is far from a safe closer himself. My advice? Avoid the situation.

Josh Beckett - 8 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 6 K. 14 game winner failure #2. Far from his best outing last night, obviously, but he pitched deep into the game and kept his team in the game. He had a rough June, but he finishes July with a 3.50 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. Those are more in line with what we should expect from Beckett.

Brian Roberts - 2/5, 2 R, 2 RBI, HR (9), SB (32). Roberts is showing improved pop over the summer months with 7 of his 9 HR coming in the last 2 months. He hasn't stolen less than 6 bases in any month, so he's been very consistent on the basepaths all season long. He's turning this into a monster season from a fantasy perspective for a 2B.

Corey Patterson - 1/4, 1 R, 2 SB (27). Patterson ends July with a .340 AVG, 4 HR, and 12 SB. He's looking more like the breakthrough Patterson of last season than the horrible version of himself that surfaced the first 3 months. The AVG is obviously a fluke, but hopefully he'll continue hitting more in the .280 range for the rest of the season.

David Ortiz - 3/4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 HR (18). His AVG has remained at high levels every month so far, but this is his first 5 HR month since April. Hopefully he'll get this thing turned around the last 2 months and provide the bigtime power his owners expect.

Ryan Zimmerman - 2/4, 1 R, 3 RBI. He finally turned in a solid month at the plate with a .311 AVG, but thanks to the absolutely miserable offense he's in, he only has 53 RBI through 4 months, less than half of what he put up last year. He should continue improving at the plate, but his surrounding situation and lack of great power makes him only a lower tiered mixed league 3B.

Edwin Jackson - 6 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. An error lead to the unearned run, which was good enough to land Jackson the loss. He's hardly fantasy-worthy in any league this year with a 6.56 ERA, but he's posted 82 K in 96 IP, showing that there is some potential here. He's a good young arm that should eventually come around at some point, and he's one to consider next year if he can close strong.

Chuck James - 5 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (9). He just doesn't pitch deep into games, does he? He's still managed 17 decisions on the year regardless of that, and he's settled into becoming a fringe mixed league starter. Last night ended his 5 start streak of 2 ER or less.

Jeff Francouer - 3/5, 3 R, 1 RBI, HR (12). Hopefully that power swing is coming around now for the stretch run. He's up to a shocking .300 so far this year, and the 69 RBI put him on pace for about 110 on the season. That pace shouldn't slow down any with Mark Teixeira joining the lineup tonight.

Kelly Johnson - 4/4, 2 R, 5 RBI, 2 HR (12). Can someone please explain to me what the hell the Braves were doing benching this guy earlier this season? It looks like he's back to becoming more of a mainstay in the lineup, and while Willie Harris starts to fade like everyone knew, Johnson and his .392 OBP belong back at the top of the lineup.

Brian McCann - 2/4, 1 R, 4 RBI, HR (12). McCann finishes July with a .282 AVG, 5 HR and 22 RBI. Consider him among the elite catchers again even if his fluky 2006 AVG of .333 never returns.

Tom Glavine - 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 2 K. Ugly walk total, but he only allowed 2 hits and pitched well despite the walks. Unfortunately the bullpen blew his 1st attempt at his 300th career win.

Jose Reyes - 2/5, 1 R, SB (50). First to 50 wins....nothing. He's on pace for 75 steals, which would be his career high.

David Wright - 2/4, 1 R, 1 RBI, SB (24). He's on pace for 36 SB, so he's not slowing down on the basepaths at all. He also has his AVG up to an even .300 after struggling earlier this season. The 18 HR so far equate to a pace of 27 (he's hit 26 and 27 the past two years), so while many people expect him to be a 35 HR hitter, his power hasn't developed to that level quite yet. Regardless, he's right there with A-Rod and Cabrera as elite fantasy 3B, with Ryan Braun knocking on the door.

Pat Burrell - 2/4, 1 R, 1 RBI, HR (14). He's up to .435 this month, with 6 HR 22 RBI, and 17 R. His overall numbers still look horrible, but there's no reason he should not be owned and in lineups while he's hitting like this. He could post a very nice 2nd half of the season. His career numbers show inconsistency, but his talent is definitely still there.

Torii Hunter - 1/4, 1 R, 1 RBI, HR (22). He's been very quiet, hitting an ugly .239 this month with 0 SB. He still managed to hit 5 HR with 11 RBI, so the power was still there. Expect him to settle into his current AVG of .288 for the rest of the year, but a further decline can't be ruled out.

Brandon Webb - 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (10). Vintage 2006 Webb here as he lowered his ERA to 3.08 on the season. This should have been expected while pitching at Petco versus a weak SD offense.

Chris Young - 1/4, 1 R, 1 RBI, HR (19). Young had a big month despite only hitting .240. He hit 8 HR with 10 RBI (victim of the leadoff spot), scored 21 R and had 7 SB. That sort of production makes up for the low AVG, but this is his first month he's been able to do that. Keep an eye on his trends, because that AVG will be a killer to your team if he's not hitting HR and stealing bases.

John Lackey - 9 IP, 7 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (13). An efficient Lackey scattered baserunners and stranded all 10 in a CG SHO. He lowered his ERA to 3.07 with this effort as he continues to pitch like a fantasy ace.

Gary Matthews Jr. - 4/5, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 HR (12). Matthews is on pace for 18 HR, so he's on pace with his HR total from Texas last year, which is a bit of a surprise. The 12 SB so far has already exceeded his 2006 total. Labeled a bust by many fantasy outlets, he's actually maintaining similar fantasy value as his breakthrough season last year. His AVG and R are down, but his SB are up and his HR and RBI total is on par.

Justin Verlander - 5 1/3 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K. Just a bad outing from Verlander last night, who raised his July totals to a 4.50 ERA and 1.28 WHIP, his worst month so far. With a 3.49 ERA and 1.19 WHIP on the season, he's turning in another strong compaign and is slowly joining the elite fantasy pitchers in the AL. He's still a candidate to wear down, so hopefully he can bounce back with a strong August.

Dan Haren - 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (13). He's settled back down nicely after a stretch of mediocre starts and has joined the ever growing 13 win club.

Brad Penny - 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 1 K. 14 game winner failure #3. He went 3-1 in July, but he posted a 4.91 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP. His K rate remained about on par, but his walk rate shot up to 17 BB in 29 1/3 IP. I've been warning for a while about his tendency to collapse in the 2nd half, and July is indicating that it's starting again. If you still own him, I still advise you to trade him.