So who's unexpectedly KILLING/Helping you so far?

[Sour Masher]

Killing me--Encarnacion, Bautista, Kipnis.

Helping: Greinke (traded Corey Ray for him right before the start of the season, when all the velocity hand-wringing had his value low), Triggs, Morton.

Interesting, given how fickle pitching typically is, that 3 hitters are my biggest disappointments, and three pitchers are my biggest over performers. I tend to have better luck than most in gambling on arms, but not as great an eye in picking hitters. I knew Joey B would be meh, and Kipnis might be slow coming back from injury, but I got both cheap, I thought. Not cheap enough so far. EE I thought would be as sure a bet as I could get in both auctions. I really wanted Freeman in one, but bowed out when his price got too high. A mistake.

My biggest regret so far this season is my guy telling me to pick up Dallas Kuechel in a trade for pennies on the dollar, because he is on a guaranteed deal for two years. I chickened out and now regret it.

[Judge Jude]

Killing: Eaton DL, Buchholz awful/dead, DHudson

Helping: TJ Rivera .347, 10 R in 47 AB as FA pickup
Knebel 2 units, 29 K and 2 ER in 18 IP
AWood

#murkymiddle

[Gregg]

In my NL only Mike Leake is helping much better than I thought he would. Kyle Schwarber is killing me with his .195 ba. Mad Bum is a bummer at $32x.

AL only God bless Logan Morrison.

[Sour Masher]

AL only God bless Logan Morrison.

Morrison just keeps hitting. While some of the other hot starts have faded a bit, he keeps going. Hell of a first half for him.

[madducks]

Vargas has won his last 7 starts and leads the AL with 12 wins and a 2.22 era.

[Sour Masher]

Vargas has won his last 7 starts and leads the AL with 12 wins and a 2.22 era.

Yeah, there seem to be a lot of over-achiever this year that are taking their time regressing to their mean.

[Judge Jude]

UPDATE: AWood is killing it, as are Knebel and Duvall and of course Kershaw. we've found out stride at midseason, now only 7 points out of 1st.

[Gregg]

AL only. Whit Merrifield has been great. I picked him up with a $14 Faab.

Brad Miller has been made of glass and cost me big time this year.

NL only Maikel Franco has been disappointing. Adam Frazier has been better than I thought he would be.

[rhd]

For most of the year, Alcides Escobar has killed me. But in the last 3 weeks, he's been very good:

- start-6/9 - 41-230, 10 2B, 0 HR, 15 RBI, 1 SB, .178/.204/.222
- 6/10-7/1 - 29-79, 6 2B 2 HR, 9 RBI, 1 SB, .367/.367/.570 (not counting 2-4, 2B, 2RBI today)

Of course, for most of his hot streak I had him benched (he started taking off rt after I benched him).

Caution: during his streak he also has a .409 BABIP and 0/11 BB/K. Before the streak, he had .225 BABIP and 6/50 BB/K. His career Babip is normal - .295. He's a slap hitter so he's never walked a lot (career BB rate = 4.0). And he's never struck out much either (career K rate = 13.6). But this year his BB rate is 1.9 (!!) and his K rate is 19.7. I dont know what he's doing but he needs to bring his plate discipline back to near his career rate.

[Mithrandir]

Nobody has really KILLED my team so far. Some underachievers, but no one horrible.

Helping: Ervin Santana (but predictably regressing), Kintzler, Yonder (but he has sucked lately..not surprisingly), Brett Gardner

[swampdragon]

12 team - middle of pack in hitting (forget pitching)
coming out of the draft it looked like my hitting couldnt be beat - somehow it has been mediocre at best
lucroy - wow - YUCK
goldschmidt - ok no complaints here
cesar hernanandez - traded him at the right time and replaced him with Kipnis - YUCK
Cory Seager - ok no complaint
Justin Turner - great when not hurt
Bogaerts - thought would have more power and RBIs but...
Gyorko, Bell, Gallo - pretty much start the wrong one every night
Cargo - YUCK - ouch - the worst
AJones - OK
Pollock - OUCH - been middling replacements
Upton - good and bad - mostly good
KDavis - no complaints (could use a bit more RBIs)

[Don Quixote]

PONY--Killing--MadBum $41, Yelich $36, K-Rod keeper at something like $20 (gone); Helping--Pham, Knebel, Straily, Moustakas, Smoak, Chris Taylor

12TO--Killing--Melancon $35, Jose Reyes $20, Matt Moore $24; Helping--Leake $5, Nola $5, Mercer $2 (he's not good but he hasn't sucked)

RJEL--Killing--Tomas, Harvey $20, Maeda $27, Joe Ross even at $3; Helping--Schebler $7, Salvador Perez $12, Straily $3, Lind $1

MSGL--Killing--K-Rod again, Tulo $23, Brandon Moss $15, Pineda $19, Kennys Vargas $7; Helping--Dickerson $17, Gardner $20, Andrelton Simmons $13, Sabathia $1