The Midnight Ride of Ben Revere

Listen my children and you shall hear of all the stolen bases of Ben Revere

For every death, there is a birth... or so they say. The disabling of Jason Kubel and Jim Thome cleared a path for the speedy Ben Revere. The Twins prospect (No. 4 or No. 5 depending on where you look) was hitting .303 with 8 SB in AAA before his promotion. He possesses very little to no power, but he makes all kinds of contact (8.3% K%). Revere has averaged over 46 SB per season while playing in the minors. He's fast. For those who have a need for speed, Revere should get plenty of playing time over the next few weeks. I'd expect him to hit .275-.280 over a large sample of At Bats. He's currently owned in 0% of Y! leagues. You may not write a poem about Ben Revere, but he should be of use. I'm taking him for a midnight ride, he was a recent addition to the Hart Foundation.

More MLB action from Friday after the break.

Alexi Ogando shut down the Tribe in Cleveland [8 IP, 4 H, BB, ER, 6 K]. His WHIP now sits at 0.88, his ERA: 2.20. Ogando's incredible average of balls in play (.210) will be even lower by the time you read this. Even after stiff-arming a potent offense I'm not buying his ability to limit base hits at this rate. Never! If Alexi had a league average BABIP (.287) he'd be rocking a 1.10 WHIP and 3.65 FIP. Don't get me wrong, he's a good pitcher, but he's not as good as his current numbers suggest.

J.P. Arencibia Golf Wanged a grand slam off Zach Britton. The HR was his ninth of the season. Arencibia will challenge Mike Napoli for the home run crown among Catchers, he's still available in 43% of Y! leagues.

Speaking of Zach Britton, this was the third game in a row where opposing batsmiths were singing the tunes of Zach Attack [5 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 5 ER, 3 K]. Britton was the Tom Cruise of BABIP earlier this season, but betting on these mission impossible-type BABIP numbers is risky business. Britton was overrated, there isn't much reason to get excited about a ground baller when he's striking out less than five per nine. Science trumps scientology.

Rajai Davis went 3 for 4 (Run) at the dish and stole his 16th base. I shouldn't be writing about this, but people are slow. Davis is, amazingly I might add, available in 45% of Y! leagues. He's better than Michael Bourn who has a 80% ownership rate.

Xavier Paul, whom I called a poor man's Jose Tabata, finagled his way into the Pirates lineup and stole his sixth base. He shouldn't be rostered, but he could be the Sam Fuld of the National League. There's a possible feel good story here if he received the playing time.

Leo Nunez put up Blown Save number two on his profile page. He surrendered a game-winning HR to Ryan Braun after allowing Yuni to get on base (single). John Axford didn't give up any hits, but he did walk three batters before striking out a pinch-hitter to close out the game. Not a good day for either Closer.

Coco "Long Beach" Crisp represented Snogg Dogg and the LBC by stealing his 18th base of the season. Grand Theft Base was the case that they gave him. Coco is available on wax in 45% of Y! leagues. Not sure why he's collecting dust on shelves, I guess peoples have poor taste in free agents.

Brian Fuentes wasn't credited with an Earned Run, but he took the Blown Save anyway. He gave up a single to Carl Crawford before getting J.D. Drew to ground out. Seems kind of unfair to give him the BS, but Fuentes should get one of those even when he does record the Save. Fuentes and Blown Saves are one and the same.

K-Rod took the loss after giving up three hits, including Eric Hinske's 6th HR. K-Rod is definitely in decline mode, but he's been the victim of bad luck this season. His 14.5% LD% (coming into tonight) would be a career best and the .342 BABIP would be a career worst. Still, his fastball velocity is down, the strikeouts are down slightly and the walks are up a bit. The cash-strapped Mets would be crazy to let his contract clause manifest itself. Look for something interesting to happen here, they may use his poor numbers (1.57 WHIP) as an excuse to remove him from the closer gig. Could we possibly see Izzy back in the saddle? Jason is seven saves shy of 300. Reaching that milestone would be the highlight of the Mets season.

Danny Duffy didn't look good at home against the Twinks [5 IP, 7 H, 3 BB, 3 ER, 3 K]. I'm officially off the Duffman bandwagon.

What happened when Josh Collmenter's .161 BABIP met Mike Morse's 11-game hit streak? Mike Morse went down for the count (0-4, 2 K). The hit streak is over, tell Mercury Morris to break out the champagne.

Josh Collmenter was a great stream play for me today. He had a cake matchup against the Nationals [7 IP, 3 H, BB, 5 K]. The 32% owned rookie has truly surprised me in terms of his command. He's walked only five batters through 43.1 IP (1.04 BB/9). He's never posted numbers like this in the minors. He has an interesting delivery [Baseball Nation], I'm curious to know if he's tweaked something or he's just overachieving to the max.

Chris Denorfia was atop the Padres lineup on Friday. He went 2 for 3 with a BB and his 4th HR (off J.A. Happ). Denorfia was seeing a chunk of his PT against LHP (all four of his HR have come off Lefties), but he has a .294 AVG against RHP this season (.270 career) and Cameron Maybin was recently put on the DL (knee). Denorfia isn't special by any means, but he's solid. I'm no fan of owning a piece of the Padres lineup, but he's an underdog and I like to cheer for those guys. Denorfia has moderate power, but he doesn't hit enough Fly Balls to hit more than 15 HR over the course of a full season. Still, I'd take a .290/15/15 line in deeper leagues.

Justin Smoak hit another home run, this was his 10th of the season and the 4th in his past 6 games.

Jason Vargas owned the Rays on Friday [9 IP, 4 H, BB, 4 K]. That's a shutout. Not that difficult a task when you're pitching at Safeco against a team that plays Felipe Lopez at First Base. What the hell is Joe Maddon doing? Does he know that midget is hitting .222?

Our boy Juan Nicasio was knocked around by the Giants [6 IP, 9 H, BB, 3 ER, 3 K]. The strikeouts from AA (10.01 K/9) haven't translated to the majors yet, but the control has been there. The one thing I worry about reared it's ugly head today. Nicasio has put up poor BABIP numbers at all stops in the minors. A Jason Hammelesque BABIP is what I fear.

I love me some middle relief help. My latest darling may be the best pitcher in the Rockies bullpen: Matt Reynolds (not Greg Reynolds). Matt had a 10.80 K/9, 1.80 BB/9 and 14.7% LD% (.206 BABIP) coming into tonight's game. He didn't disappoint (IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 K). He put up a 0.83 WHIP and 2.00 ERA in his short rookie season (18 IP). He doesn't throw a fireball (89-90 mph fastball), but the kid is good and he's helping a few of my teams.

That's all for tonight ladies n gents -peace and elbow grease- @andrewakamds