FAAB Log Supplemental: June 8, 2009

American League
Gordon Beckham
Like the three call-ups I profiled last week, unless you're in an eight-team mixed league you probably at least know who Beckham is (and if you're in an eight-team mixed league, you're probably not one of my readers). Beckham was a 1st round draft pick by the White Sox in 2008 after crushing college pitchers at the University of Georgia to the tune of 28 HR in 275 AB with an absolutely sick 1323 OPS. Ozzie Guillen kept making noises about how the White Sox weren't going to promote him, but with Chris Getz, Josh Fields, Wilson Betemit, and Brent Lillibridge ahead of him on the depth chart in Chicago, the Sox felt like they needed to see if they had a more productive player now. Beckham's minor league numbers to date have been solid, but I'm a little concerned that the power hasn't translated well from the aluminum to the wood bat, he hasn't shown any baserunning speed, and the BB/SO ratio - while OK - isn't as stellar as it was at Georgia. I suspect Beckham will be like a lot of top college players: he'll eventually be a solid major league regular, but it will take him longer to adjust to the MLB hitting curve than it would for a similar 22-year-old drafted out of high school who has already had four years of facing professional pitching. Still, your bid here is going to have to be high. I'd bid $12 in keeper leagues, and $35 in non-keeper leagues. I like Beckham long-term, but I think that he might struggle a little bit at the outset.

Luke Hochevar
This is Hochevar's second stint with the Royals; I wrote about his first two starts last month. He did a better job yesterday of keeping his pitches down, which meant more ground balls. Many believe that is going to be the key to Hochevar's success in the bigs. I'm not sure if the Royals are committed to him or not for this go 'round, but my opinion is still the same: Hochevar is a #4 SP in a best case scenario, and could be a Quad-A guy in the worst case. I'd still keep my bid in the $3-7 range.

National League
Andrew McCutchen
With the perhaps-not-inevitable trade of Nate McLouth out of town, the Pirates decided that it was time for McCutchen to take his place on center stage for the Pirates. He's spent all of 2008 and 2009-to-date at AAA and has held his own, so he should be a solid everyday player for the Bucs. At the very least, McCutchen offers good speed and could steal 20-25 bases (the improvement in his SB/CS rate this year was encouraging). The big question to Roto players is will the power eventually come or will McCutchen be more of a 10-15 HR guy? Either way, he offers a good deal of potential value in freeze leagues, and even in non-carryover leagues is still a strong play based on three category potential. I'd go $50 for him right now just based on the speed and hope for 10 HR.

Tommy Hanson
I was going to put this post to bed earlier, but wanted to watch Hanson's start first. It was definitely a tale of two pitchers today. In the first three innings, Hanson was hitting 95-97 MPH on the fast gun, throwing his curve with a sharp break, and mixing in a good slider (it was actually his weakest pitch today). Innings 4-6 so Hanson make more mistakes, but he definitely lost stamina as he went along. The fastball dropped in to the 92-94 MPH range, his slider was actually coming over faster but with less bite and he stopped throwing the curve. The announcers on today's broadcast said that they haven't been babying Hanson in the minors, so one would hope that this isn't a case of poor stamina but just some mechanical flaws that are easily adjusted. If he can stay sharp for 6-7 innings every game, he's going to be extremely hard to hit, but we all know that rookie pitchers take their lumps no matter how talented they are...and Hanson's plenty talented. Bid $40, but know that Hanson could struggle based solely on what I saw today, which is admittedly as small a sample as you can get.