It has been 10 years since Jay Payton broke into the majors on a permanent basis with the New York Mets and five seasons since he played his last game with a National League team. Further, it has been a full season since Payton last played with any Major League team in the regular season. Incredulously, not only is Payton likely on his way back into the show at some point this season, but he may have value heading into the trade deadline.

The 37-year-old has spent this season with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox along with other former major leaguers, like Brad Eldred, Nick Bierbrodt, Jimmy Gobble, and Damian Moss. Payton is actually second on the team in plate appearances, and is hitting .323/.371/.467 with three homers. He’s never been an overly impressive player, with his best season by WAR standards being a 3.7 win 2002, backed by stellar defense.

Nifty glovework is really the key for Payton- play defense at each of the outfield positions as well as hit lefties slightly above league average. He missed the 2009 season because of a shoulder injury sustained while lifting weights and signed a minor league deal this past off-season with the Rockies. He is cheap, and, when combined with the aforementioned attributes, makes for a decent if unspectacular bench option for a team heading toward the playoffs.

The Rockies themselves don’t really need him, which just intensifies the likelihood of a trade. The return on Payton isn’t going to necessitate a top prospect. Probably a player to be named later that ends up being a live arm in A-ball or cash considerations; whatever deal Payton is moved in won’t set the world ablaze, but don’t be surprised if it comes before the flurry of near-deadline moves because if Dexter Fowler isn’t cracking the Rockies’ depth chart at this point, then neither is Payton.

Daniel Bard is universally accepted as the most likely pitcher to replace Jonathan Papelbon as the Red Sox’ closer. So it’s quite a revelation when Bard, not Papelbon, leads the league in shutdowns (with 21). Those two actually combine to be the duo with the most shutdowns in baseball, barely topping the unlikely challengers in Cincinnati in the form of Arthur Rhodes and Francisco Cordero. Let’s focus on Bard, though.

The 25-year-old sends more fireballs to batters than Mario by using his upper-90s fastball more than three-fourths of the time. Both pitch classification specialists (Baseball Info Solutions, which is found on the player’s main page, and the Pitchfx tab within) have Bard throwing a change-up that sits right around 90 miles per hour. For a ridiculous comparison, consider this: Stephen Strasburg is basically matching Bard in velocity, both on fastballs and change-ups, but doing so while, in three appearances, throwing half the pitches Bard has in 35 outings.

When one compares Bard’s numbers accumulated this season to those in 2009, the decrease in walks allowed is perhaps most noticeable. It’s not because he’s throwing more pitches in the zone, though, or getting more swinging strikes. It just appears that his distribution of balls has altered, particularly on first pitches. Last year, Bard started up in the count 56% of the time; this year, he’s just shy of 61%. That’s not a radical shift, but when combined with more batters putting the ball in play earlier in counts (he’s shaved 0.2 pitches per plate appearance) the pair form a nice segue into lower walk rates.

Despite the reduction in free passes, Bard’s FIP has increased ever slightly; and yet, he’s still been the better half of the Red Sox’s end-game partnership this season cumulatively and when it matters most.

Overview

Despite a poor start and a 24-29 record, the Cubs only sit 7 games behind division leaders St. Louis and 5.5 games behind second place Cincinnati. They remain within striking distance if they can put together a strong stretch, but given the amount of talent on the two teams ahead of them, their playoff odds are long, likely around or below 10%. This has to be a disappointing, albeit salvageable, season to date for a team with a $144 million opening day payroll, especially given that $103 million of that payroll will be around for the 2011 season.

Buy Or Sell

The answer right now is likely “hold” – if both St. Louis (7-9) and Cincinnati (6-11) continue playing as poorly as they have in June, selling would be premature. However, the Cubs are too far out of the race to buy at this point, at seven games behind and playing just as poorly as the Cardinals this month. Given that I find the “buy” scenario to be a low probability affair, I will take a look at who the Cubs could be selling soon.

There are two obvious selling chips for the Cubs: Derrek Lee and Ted Lilly, both of whom have $13 million contracts expiring at the end of the season. Lilly would be a perfect “sell high” candidate. His 4.75 xFIP and 4.47 FIP are masked by a shiny 3.42 ERA and .234 BABIP. Lilly’s strikeouts are down and walks are up, which is unsurprising out of a 34 year old starter. Given that the Cubs could easily slide Tom Gorzelanny (2.80 FIP, 3.59 xFIP as a stater) into Lilly’s spot, the Cubs should move Lilly now if they can.

The situation with Lee isn’t quite as simple. He’s been hitting poorly this season, only posting a .327 wOBA, but much of that is based on a .268 BABIP. At 35, there’s no guarantee that this is all luck, and so there will almost certainly be some trepidation among teams looking for help at 1B. It’s likely that he’s still a good fielder, as his +4 UZR to date agrees with his +9.4 combined score from the last two seasons, so there is still some value here. Also, the potential replacements in Xavier Nady, Chad Tracy, and Micah Hoffpauir aren’t exactly desirable for even half of a down season, if it comes to that. Right now, the Cubs should hold their cards and hope that Lee can build up some value before the deadline.

Ryan Theriot’s name has been bandied about in trade rumors recently as well. Theriot is a 30 year old but still has two years of arbitration left. However, his productivity has sharply dove since a solid 2008 season, to the point where his walk rate of 4.9% is less than half that of his 3.2 WAR 2008. His ground balls are way up (56.1% this season), leading to far less power – his ISO of .030 is down 55 points from last season. ZiPS suggests a partial turnaround is possible. Theriot’s value is low right now, but if a desperate team for middle infield help comes calling, the Cubs should deal, as given Theriot’s age, there’s no guarantee that he returns to the form that compiled 5.6 WAR in 2008 and 2009.

On The Farm

The Cubs farm system has vastly improved in recent years, as shown by the graduations of Tyler Colvin, Andrew Cashner and Starlin Castro this season. Hak-Ju Lee also shows great promise at SS, and should form the middle infield of the future with Castro. Josh Vitters is a 20 year old 3B with talent to burn despite struggling at AA so far this season. Overall, Beyond the Boxscore’s composite farm system rankings has the Cubs 10th, with six top-100 prospects.

Budget

If the Cubs do end up buying, they likely won’t be able to add much in the way of salary, particularly in long term deals. The $144 million opening day number was the highest in team history, and the team has two very expensive and likely untradeable contracts on hand until 2012 and 2014 respectively in the forms of Carlos Zambrano and Alfonso Soriano. On the other hand, selling on Lee and Lilly could give some short term salary relief which could allow the team to be more aggressive next winter.

For two years, John Lannan looked like the luckiest man in baseball. In 2008, he struck out just 5.79 per nine and walked 3.56 per nine, yet still ended the year with a 3.91 ERA. His 4.79 FIP suggested that he might be performing a bit above his head. But then in 2009 he saw his strikeout numbers fall to an unfathomable 3.88. His walks decreased a bit, as did his home runs, but that still added up to a 4.70 FIP. Lannan’s ERA that season: 3.88. This year, however, his fortunes have changed.

It started on Opening Day and didn’t get much better after that. Three starts later Jack, commented on Lannan’s continued futility after a six-inning outing against Colorado in which he allowed four runs on 11 hits, striking out two to one walk. “The ridiculous amount of balls in play that Lannan allows is finally catching up to him, it would appear,” Jack wrote. “It is a long season, and there is time for Lannan to revert to the form that added up to that 3.98 ERA the first few years of his career.” Yet, that just hasn’t happened.

The White Sox pummeled Lannan yesterday, scoring five runs on 11 hits through four innings. Lannan didn’t walk anyone, but he also struck out just one. He did keep the ball on the ground, inducing 12 ground balls to three fly balls and five line drives. And, to his credit, only one of those 11 hits went for extra bases, a double to Alex Rios. That double, unfortunately, came in the four-run fifth, during which Lannan allowed four straight hits without recording an out. That resulted in three runs. The fourth scored after Miguel Bautista allowed two hits of his own before inducing a run-scoring double play.

After the game, Nats manager Jim Riggleman said, “I believe in John.” After hearing the pronouncement, MASN’s Phil Wood summed up Lannan perfectly:

Make no mistake about it: John Lannan doesn’t have overpowering stuff. He’s never been a strikeout pitcher, and in his short career has relied on command in the bottom of the strike zone. Today, as he had in his past couple of starts, he threw strikes, but very hittable ones. It was too easy for the Chicago hitters to center on the ball and get it over the infield.

Lannan apparently hasn’t had that bottom of the zone precision this year. His groundball rate is down for the third straight year, and his line drive rate is up at 21 percent, which is higher than any point in his career. It suggests that he either isn’t hitting his spots like has in the past, or that hitters know where those spots exist and have exploited them. In any case, it has added up to terrible results, a 5.18 FIP and 5.76 ERA through 14 starts and 75 innings.

Today, we got a bit of a surprise. Earlier this afternoon, MASN’s Ben Goessling reported that Lannan had been optioned to AA Harrisburg. Joel Peralta will take his spot. It sounds like the Nats want Lannan to take the necessary time to again find the stuff that made him so successful in 2008 and 2009. That could take some work, especially if hitters have found his sweet spots. It’s been a sharp fall for the two-time Opening Day starter. It’s no sure thing at all that Lannan finds his way back.

Overview

The Chicago White Sox have a .500 record at the moment, which by itself would seem to leave them in an ambiguous spot regarding the immediate future. Sure, their run differential indicates they “should” only be 32-36, but we aren’t here to talk about the past. The standings are a bit less ambiguous, with the White Sox five-and-a-half games behind the first place Twins, and three back of the second place Tigers.

Buy or Sell?

Although in principle the White Sox are close enough that “anything could happen,” it seems pretty clear to me that the White Sox should be selling (and recent comments by General Manager Kenny Williams seem to indicate that he thinks so, too). Yes, they have some good players, but, well, the 2010 Astros didn’t happen overnight. This isn’t to say that the 2011 White Sox are going to be the worst team in baseball if something isn’t done, but it’s a possibility. Some painful choices need to be made, and the sooner that happens, the sooner the White Sox can be back in the mix, and the odds of them making them playoffs this season are too slim to take the chance.

The White Sox do have some dead weight on their roster. Juan Pierre wouldn’t bring much of anything in a trade even if the White Sox paid what they owe on his salary (only part of it, since the Dodgers are picking up the rest). Even if Mark Teahen were healthy at the moment, he’s owed the prorated remainder of $14 million dollars through 2012, and is working on his third season in a row of replacement-level performance.

If the White Sox act on their more valuable veterans now, they don’t necessarily have to move their good young pitchers. Gavin Floyd might have some decent value on the trade market, and John Danks certainly would, but although the White Sox should listen on all of their players, they don’t necessarily have to move these two valuable pieces if they start getting good value for the older players.

The key to getting value back for many of their veterans will be a willingness for the White Sox to send along money, since these players do not have much surplus value beyond their contracts. I am surprised that A.J. Pierzynski is still on the team, given that his no trade rights only recently vested. He’s had a terrible season so far, but his projected performance indicates a player who could help many teams. Paul Konerko is having an excellent season in the last year of his contract — again, the White Sox would probably have to send along a large chunk of money to get some value back, but he should certainly be on the block. Mark Buehrle is signed through 2011 at $14 million dollars, and although he’s slowing down, the Sox could probably get something back for him if they sent along a chunk of his salary.

There are various good bullpen pitchers on the Sox roster that could be discussed: Bobby Jenks and Matt Thornton come to mind, but in the space I have hear, it’s worth going over two harder cases. First, Jake Peavy is still a good pitcher, and the White Sox paid a lot to get him. But he’s been struggling a bit with injury concerns, and they might want to wait and see how he plays a bit more and find out whether he might be part of their future or to show other teams he’s worth looking into. Alex Rios is a different case: as I’ve discussed before, he’s proving to be worth every bit of the money he’s owed through 2014. The problem is that he probably won’t be worth much more than that, and other teams may be hesitant to take on enough salary for his trade value to be worth it to the White Sox. In any case, if they do things right with the other players, he might be part of a future contender anyway. They should keep their ears open, though.

Andruw Jones has come back to earth and probably wouldn’t bring back more than a trinket, but Alexei Ramirez has flown under the radar so far this season. No, he hasn’t hit well so far this season, but ZiPS RoS sees it as a temporary condition, and he fields well at shortstop. He’s signed for only $1.1 million dollars through 2011, a great value for the Sox, but if they don’t think they’ll contend in 2011, a league-average shortstop making $1.1 million dollars could bring back a very good return from the right team.

On the Farm

The White Sox’ farm system was 26th in Beyond the Box Score’s aggregate farm system rankings, having been depleted through trades and less-than-inspired drafting. There is some talent there that could help soon: Daniel Hudson is a good pitcher, Tyler Flowers a promising offensive catcher, and between Dayan Viciedo and Brent Morel a third baseman should be in there somewhere. There are other helpful players, but not enough in either upside or depth. That is why the older players on the major league roster need to be traded — in order for these few good prospects to potentially have some company on a White Sox team that has a chance to contend.

Budget

According to Cot’s, the White Sox Opening Day payroll this season was $103 million dollars. They aren’t shy about spending, but as I’ve written above, that willingness to pay should, for now, go into willingness to pay sizable chunks of the salaries for veterans that they trade away in order to get back a decent return.

After a weekend of feasting on the Royals the Braves have improved to 42-28, the best record in baseball outside the AL East. It wasn’t long ago, however, that the Braves were in last place. On May 9, fresh off a series loss to the then-division-leading Phillies, the Braves were 13-18, last place in the NL East. Their outfielders, outside Jason Heyward, were hitting horribly. Melky Cabrera was at .192/.279/.222 and Nate McLouth was at .176/.304/.294. Clearly something had to change if the Braves were going to turn around their season. The answer, as it happens so many times, sat right in front of them.

Through May 9, Eric Hinske had started just five games. Bobby Cox regularly used him as a pinch hitter, so he did have 36 PA. In that limited playing time he was hitting .273/.333/.424, right around his career totals. Still, those numbers were far better than those of the starters. Cox didn’t start Hinske the next day when his team faced the lefty Doug Davis, but the next day, against David Bush, he penciled Hinske’s name into the sixth spot, taking Cabrera’s spot in the field. Hinske went 2-for-2 with two doubles and two walks. Bobby had created a monster.

Since that day in mid-May, Hinske has started 27 of the Braves’ 38 games. He has hit .324/.391/.588 in 115 PA, raising his season wOBA to .397. He falls about 70 PA short of qualification, but if he did qualify he’d rank fourth among NL outfielders in wOBA, just one point behind Josh Willingham. Combined with a resurgent performance from Troy Glaus during the same period, .300/.405/.614, the Braves have displayed a greatly improved offense. They went from 3.90 runs per game in their first 31 games to 5.72 per game in their last 39. That has shown up in the standings. After their low point, 13-18 on May 9, they’ve gone 29-10 and now sit at 42-28, 2.5 games ahead of the second place Mets.

Unsurprisingly, Hinske, a lefty, has demonstrated marked career platoon splits. Against lefties he sports a .295 career wOBA, while against righties he has a .351 wOBA. This year he’s demonstrating a similar tendency, posting a .287 wOBA against lefties and a .405 wOBA against righties. His wOBA against righties is so close to his season wOBA for a reason. Of his 151 PA, only 10 have come against lefties. Cox should have an easier time keeping Hinske out against lefties once Matt Diaz returns, too. He struggled in general before suffering a thumb injury, but he has a career .384 wOBA against lefties. A Hinske-Diaz platoon could be the answer for the Braves in left field. It helps, too, that Cabrera is hitting .340/.367/.468 in his last 99 PA.

That Hinske’s increased playing time has correlated with the Braves winning ballgames should come as little surprise. As Tommy Rancel so aptly put it, “Not only is Hinske better in the East, but he makes his teammates better.” (Yes, he was obviously being tongue-in-cheek.) Tommy was referring to the AL East, but apparently it’s any team in the East. It’s the Hinske magic, and Frank Wren captured it when he signed Hinske to a mere $1 million deal in January. It looks as though he’ll also get that $500K in performance bonuses as well. Hinske has been a savior to the Braves this season. The question is to which team he’ll bring his mojo next year.

We’re going to take the time machine all the way back to July of 2008, assessing some of the deals made around the trade deadline.

Dodgers receive: LF Manny Ramirez
Red Sox receive: LF Jason Bay
Pirates receive: RHP Bryan Morris, 2B/3B Andy LaRoche, OF Brandon Moss, RHP Craig Hansen
Winner: Red Sox, Dodgers

It was time for Manny to leave Beantown, and although the deadline seemed to have passed, these three teams were able to work a deal that would shake the baseball world. Jason Bay found the postseason in Boston and had a huge 2009, putting up 5.0 WAR. Manny said hello to L.A.-L.A. land and was unstrasburgly for the Dodgers, hitting .396/.489/.743 for the boys in blue in 2008. The Pirates, well, they decided to go with quantity over quality, and it bit them. After a nice year from LaRoche in 2009 (2.6 WAR), he’s been awful this season (-0.6 WAR), and doesn’t project to be the line drive hitter he once was. Craig Hansen has had health issues and Brandon Moss was below average, but Bryan Morris does seem to be a promising prospect. Still, Pittsburgh could have done better for Bay.
– – –

Angels receive: 1B Mark Teixeira
Braves receive: 1B Casey Kotchman, RHP Stephen Marek
Winner: Angels

The Braves thought they had found Teixeira’s semi-replacement in Kotchman, but instead they got someone who’d hit .267/.346/.378 at first base, never giving Atlanta anything of much substance. Stephen Marek is 26 years old and floundering in Triple-A. Teixeira? He hit .358/.448/.632 for the Angels and helped get them to the playoffs in 2008. They also used his compensation draft pick to take OF Mike Trout, one of the brightest young outfield prospects in the minors today.
– – –

Dodgers receive: 3B Casey Blake
Indians receive: RHP Jon Meloan, C Carlos Santana
Winner: Indians

Poor Paul DePodesta is an Assistant GM while Colletti gets to make moves like this. While Casey Blake has certainly been valuable for the Dodgers, this one has to hurt LA in the long run. Blake racked up 4.6 WAR last year, but his defense has dropped and his offense is stagnant. He’s on the downside of his career. Santana, meanwhile, is a switch-hitting catcher with a stance just like Victor Martinez and serious power. Blake has been a nice player for LA, but Santana looks to out-WAR him over the next few years, and then some.
– – –

Phillies receive: RHP Joe Blanton
Athletics receive: 2B Adrian Cardenas, LHP Josh Outman, OF Matthew Spencer
Winner: Push

For now, the Phillies generally win because flags fly forever. This one is likely to change in the next few years, but the guarantee isn’t enough there that I’ll give it to Oakland quite yet. Outman has produced a 4.09 FIP and 1.6 WAR for the A’s in 2008-09 (he’s been hurt this year). Cardenas is a slick middle infielder who may be a star one day, but until then is no sure thing. At 22, he’s crushed Double-A pitching, but has stagnated in Triple-A, hitting .242/.305/.337 there in 82 games, and just .228/.285/.281 this year. However, he has time to adjust, and once he does he can be dangerous.
– – –

Brewers receive: SP CC Sabathia
Indians receive: OF Matt LaPorta, LHP Zach Jackson, RHP Rob Bryson, OF Michael Brantley
Winner: Brewers

As well as Mark Shapiro made out in the Blake deal he underperformed in the Sabathia trade. CC helped bring Milwaukee to the playoffs via the Wild Card by throwing seven complete games in seventeen starts with a 1.65 ERA. He was simply outstanding. LaPorta, meanwhile, has struggled in adjusting to the big leagues. In 87 combined games in the majors during his age 24-25 seasons, LaPorta has hit just .240/.301/.377. An OPS of .678 just will not get it done for a guy who was touted for his massive power, especially when he’s a DH trying to play a mediocre outfield and first base.
– – –

Yankees receive: OF Xavier Nady, LHP Damaso Marte
Pirates receive: OF Jose Tabata, RHP Ross Ohlendorf, RHP Jeff Karstens, RHP Daniel McCutchen
Winner: Pirates

While Nady hit pretty well with the Yankees (.270/.319/.469), Marte’s inability to stay healthy and his mediocre pitching gives this to Pittsburgh. The Pirates decided to go with both quality and quantity here, getting a bunch of players who will help them in the long run, highlighted by Jose Tabata. At worst, Pittsburgh can always put Ohlendorf, who majored in Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton, in the front office.

After getting swept over the weekend, the Dodgers have now dropped four straight games and sit two games out of first place in the National League West, behind both San Diego and San Francisco. With the league adjusting to John Ely, the focus has once again turned to LA’s need for some pitching to stabilize their rotation, but there’s another problem with this Dodger team that gets little notice – their outfield defense is atrocious.

The Dodgers OFs have combined for a UZR of -27.5 so far this year, easily the worst in the majors. It’s even worse than that number claims, though, as Reed Johnson’s +6.3 is propping up the starters. The regular trio for LA are posting fielding numbers that will make your eyes bleed – Manny Ramirez is at -4.1, Matt Kemp has a -13.8, and Andre Ethier is the king butcher to date with a -16.5 UZR. Ethier and Kemp have the two lowest UZRs of any players in baseball so far in 2010.

Of course, we’re less than halfway into the season, and you need large sample sizes to judge a defender’s abilities using a metric like UZR. But all three of these guys have been in the league for a while, and the big picture isn’t much prettier.

In over 8,000 innings in left field, Ramirez has a career UZR/150 of -20.4, and while there were a lot of cries about the Green Monster making him look worse than he really was, he has posted a -22.6 UZR in 1,549 innings with the Dodgers.

Kemp doesn’t have the same track record of being terrible, but he’s played nearly 3,000 innings in center field, and his career UZR/150 is -10.1. Toss in another 1,300 innings in the corner outifield positions with a below average UZR as well, and it’s pretty clear that Kemp is not much of a center fielder.

Finally, there’s Ethier, who has spent nearly 5,000 innings in the corner outfield spots in his career, racking up a UZR/150 of -9.1, and he’s trending the wrong way, posting the 5th worst UZR total since the beginning of 2008, beating out only Adam Dunn, Brad Hawpe, Jermaine Dye, and Bobby Abreu. Not really the kind of company you want to keep when talking about defensive prowess.

Essentially, at this point, the Dodgers are running out an outfield that consists of a right fielder and two designated hitters. While all three are quality hitters and help the team score runs, they are giving back a lot of value with their lack of range in the outfield. The team’s run prevention problems do not fall on just the pitchers, as they aren’t getting much support from the guys behind them.

As the Dodgers pursue a starting pitcher for the stretch run, may I suggest they target a guy who gets a lot of groundballs?

On Sunday, Josh Hamilton carried the Texas Rangers’ offense. Going 5-for-6 while knocking in the tying run in the ninth inning and the go-ahead tally in the tenth, Hamilton had the biggest impact on the outcome of the game. With a +.672 Win Probability Added, it’s no wonder that the fans designated him Star of the Game.

Hamilton’s revived bat is a welcome sight for the Rangers. In his first season with Texas in 2008, the lefty hitter raked to the tune of a .304/.371/.530 line and a .385 wOBA. Even taking into account the friendly environs of Arlington, Hamilton’s hitting was 35 percent better than the league average (135 wRC+). Last year, however, Hamilton suffered through rib, abdominal, and back maladies, taking just 365 trips to the plate. His line fell to .268/.315/.426, with a .321 wOBA and a 92 wRC+.

Though a left shoulder injury sidelined him early in spring training, Hamilton has stayed on the field in 2010 and is enjoying the best season of his career. In 292 PA, the 29-year-old has a .337/.381/.600 triple-slash. His .422 wOBA ranks fifth among qualified MLB hitters, and his wRC+ sits at 163. Hamilton’s benefitting from some favorable bounces on balls put in play — his BABIP is .385, compared to a .330 expected BABIP and a career .335 BABIP — but he’s also beating the snot out of the ball. After a downturn in his power output last year, Hamilton has returned to his slugging ways:

After posting a mild .158 Isolated Power in 2009, with 9.2 percent of his fly balls leaving the park, Hamilton has a .263 ISO and a 20 HR/FB percentage in 2010. Typically an all-fields power threat, Hamilton didn’t hit with any authority to the middle field last year. He is back to hammering pitches to center this season, while also creaming the ball to the opposite field:

After failing to hit a single home run to center last year, Hamilton has gone deep nine times to the middle field in 2010. And, as his home run chart from Hit Tracker Online shows, they haven’t been cheap. All of those center field shots are in the 400-450 foot range:

Over all, Hamilton’s 16 home runs have an average Standard Distance of about 421 feet, compared to 411 feet last season. The American League average this season is 393 feet. Standard Distance measures the estimated distance a home run would travel, factoring out wind, temperature and altitude differences.

Josh Hamilton won’t keep hitting near .340, but he’s plenty capable of remaining an elite power hitter. ZiPS projects a .299/.355/.523 line for the rest of 2010, with a .383 wOBA and a .226 ISO. After a down, dinged-up season, Hamilton is back. Let’s just hope he can stay off the DL in the months to come.

Due to a June 15th opt-out clause in the contract of 30-year-old Ryan Shealy’s contract, the Durham Bulls, AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, lost the first baseman to International League foe Pawtucket, an affiliate of the Red Sox. With the presence of Carlos Pena in Tampa and Shealy’s advanced age, it’s hard to imagine Shealy fitting into the Rays’ plans in this season or the future. Still, Shealy had compiled a .241/.358/.518 line with Durham, an 876 OPS that ranked 11th in the league at the time of his departure. Surely, even if the Rays wouldn’t miss Shealy, the division leading Durham Bulls will.

Perhaps not. To go along with Shealy, the Bulls have the #3 IL OPS in Dan Johnson at .983 and the #5 IL OPS in Chris Richard. As far as active players go, Johnson and Richard are at #2 and #3 respectively, behind only Mike Hessman of Buffalo, the Mets affiliate, now that the Indians have called up Carlos Santana and the Pirates have called up Neil Walker.

Johnson, 30, is fresh off a season with the Yokohama BayStars. Stateside, Johnson was a slightly below average player, compiling 2.9 WAR in a touch over 1200 plate appearances, primarily as a member of the Oakland Athletics and also with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2010. Johnson’s .333 wOBA simply isn’t good enough for a first baseman in the MLB, but its possible that he suffered some BABIP luck, as his batted profile doesn’t suggest a .256 BABIP. Johnson’s back to his old tricks this season, as his .293/.391/.553 line is eerily similar to his career .306/.416/.543 minor league numbers.

Richard, 36, essentially defines the journeyman. Between the majors and the minors, Richard has played for 16 different teams since 1995, with only 1005 plate appearances coming at the MLB level. Most recent was an awful 13 game stretch with a .200 wOBA with the ’09 Rays, his first MLB stint since 2003. Over all, Richard has a .324 career wOBA and has accrued 1.6 total WAR. He has spent the last four seasons with Durham outside of that stint with the Rays, and he’s been excellent, posting OBPs above .360 and SLGs above .480 each season.

Even without Shealy on their roster, Durham looks to have a reliable duo to man first base down the stretch of the minor league season. Neither has played well in the major leagues, and given their ages, they certainly don’t have prospect status. Still, with Matt Joyce, Hank Blalock, and Carlos Pena all struggling to a certain extent, one of these two may be looked at as a potential stopgap at the DH position. Many teams have strengths at positions, but not many can lose a top-15 hitter in the league and hardly bat an eye. The Durham Bulls have that luxury at first base this season.