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A Look at the Front-Runners - AL Edition
Baseball Analysts — ... a 10-4 start thanks to a well-rounded club whose OPS+ and ERA+ of 118 and 124 respectively are both 3rd in the American League. They are also sporting the league's most impressive Defensive Efficiency Rating. Five players with an OPS north of .900 are pacing Toronto's offensive attack. While it would be easy to say that they will all fall back to earth, I am not so sure. I am not going to contend that Lyle Overbay finishes the year hitting .330 or that Aaron Hill slugs better than .600. And Marco Scutaro is hitting ...

Clash of the So-Called “Titans”
The 35th Street Review — ... while the Jays picked on Central and West division foes, winning each of their first 5 series of the season. The Blue Jays, like the 2008 Central division champion White Sox, are spending time ahead of the pack. Getting used to the view, growing accustomed to the leg room. Starting to believe? Hard to say. Injuries and statistical regression will have their say before long. The Jays can only hope their streaky guys string together enough streaks and their maligned guys can shut it all out and do their thing. ...

Past Futures Game MVPs
Bus Leagues Baseball — ... 2007: Chin-Lung Hu, Los Angeles Dodgers Jacksonville (AA, Southern)/Las Vegas (Pacific Coast): 14 HR, 62 RBI, .325 BA, .364/.507/.871 2006: Billy Butler, Kansas City Royals Wichita (AA, Texas): 15 HR, 96 RBI, .331 BA, .388/.499/.887 2005: Justin Huber, Kansas City Royals Wichita (AA, Texas)/Omaha (AAA, Pacific Coast): 23 HR, 97 RBI, .326 BA, .417/.560/.978 2004: Aaron Hill, Toronto Blue Jays New Hampshire (AA, Eastern): 11 HR, 80 RBI, .279 BA, ...

And the winner is!..........
Around the Horn Baseball — ... Comeback P.O.Y.: Aaron Hill, Toronto Blue Jays: After struggling through an injury plagued 2008 season in which he hit just .263 with 2 hr's and 20 RBI in 240 at-bats, he's bounced back and is having a career year. Amongst the AL leaders in home runs (20) and RBI (60) and has had his average right around .300 or better all year. ...

How to Manage the All-Star Game
Baseball Analysts — ... are either head and shoulders above their peers at their position, or far too good of hitters to remove, so Maddon should plan to play them the entire game (the exception is Ichiro who can be pinch-hit for if the situation desperately calls for power). Second base (Aaron Hill ...

Jays take 2 of 3 from AL West Leader
Batter's Box Interactive Magazine — ... division have. So, what about offense?  We have a 100 OPS+ which is a big improvement from 2008's 94 and 2007's 95 but still a long ways away from 2006's 108.  What hope does it have of improvement? Kids... (ie: under 27) Adam Lind, Travis Snider, Edwin Encarnacion (just 26) are all regulars now and will be in 2010.  Only Encarnacion is a downgrade vs what we were playing before. In prime years (27-31)... Aaron Hill, Jose Bautista, Vernon Wells, Randy Ruiz, Joe Inglett ...

Is Aaron Hill's Season a Fluke?
Bluebird Banter — ... His Top 10 Similar Batters from his Similarity Scores on his Baseball Reference page doesn't full you with great hope for his future: ...