The 20-20 season looks to be safe for Chris Young - now, if only he could do something about that batting average.

National League West

Arizona Diamondbacks

Hot: Chris Young appears well on the way towards the 20-20 season we had hoped for. Of course, we were kind of hoping for better than a .280 OBP. However, this week has been stellar as he has two home runs, four stolen bases, eight runs, and three RBI, with a .296 batting average. Posting similar numbers were Orlando Hudson, with two home runs, six RBI, and a .321 batting average. Also noteworthy for this week are Chris Snyder, Conor Jackson, Steven Drew, and Eric Byrnes. On the mound, Yusmeiro Petit continues to make the Marlins look pretty bad for trading him for “closer” Jorge Julio, who they didn’t need at the time, and, given the performance of Kevin Gregg, need even less now. Okay, it is easy to look at a player with an ERA approaching 10.00 in 15 appearances and not see potential. Yeah, that was 2006 for him. However, this year, in a worse ballpark, Petit is 2-2 in five starts with a 2.54 ERA and 23:9 K/BB ratio in 28.1 innings.

Cold: Mark Reynolds has been all over the board this year. He had an OPS of almost 1.300 in his first partial month, but cut in more than in half for the next month and is somewhere in between this month. This last week has been very tough – 5-for-27 with 12 strikeouts.

Colorado Rockies

The Rockies continue to hang on to the fringe of playoff possibility with a pitching staff largely unheard of. This last week saw the return of Ubaldo Jimenez to the majors and getting two pretty good starts: five earned runs, 10 strikeouts, and five walks in 12 innings. Aaron Cook is not known for his strikeout ability as evidenced by the fact that the eight he got in his last start doubled his season high, but when you average more than two groundball outs per inning, it is possible to maintain a decent ERA.  Jeff Francis is 9-1 in his last 10 decisions, though there have been a few pretty “Rockie” starts along the way, including his last one in which he allowed 10 hits including two home runs for five earned runs in six innings. Rodrigo Lopez has been a much better fit into the team than I would have imagined. Much of the appearance of the mediocrity of his stats can be attributed to his last start in June and his first in July, in which he allowed 17 hits, 14 earned runs, and only struck out one in 8.2 innings. In contrast, he has allowed 20 earned runs in his other eight starts combined. The team has plenty of hitting potential, but has trouble making it all work, such as in the last week, in which they hit .199 as a team. Brad Hawpe was the offensive star with two home runs, but only four runs and four RBI and a .250 batting average.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Hot: This week has seen many Dodgers competing for this title, but I go with age before beauty and “award” it to Luis Gonzalez. To get this honor, he hit .364 for the week with a homer, a stolen base, seven runs, and six RBI. Also hot is Jonathon Broxton, who is the backup closer to Takashi Saito and has seven strikeouts with no walks and only one hit in his last 3.2 innings.

Cold: Russell Martin has been the fantasy baseball stud from the catcher position this year with 17 stolen bases, 11 homers, 66 RBI, and a .300 batting average. However, this week has been a tough one for him since he is five for 32-but does at least have a stolen base.

San Diego Padres

Hot: Milton Bradley got his first at bat in San Diego on July 7 and has raised his season average 30 points to an impressive .324. This last week, he finally connected for his first home run in a Padres uniform, and hit two more, and a double, a triple, and five singles for a batting average of .400 and OPS of 1.363. Do not count on these numbers lasting, or even Milton staying off the DL.

Cold: It seems like Khalil Greene was just a trendy shortstop pickup in fantasy leagues recently (.292 BA with six homers in June, three homers in the first half of July), but in the last week he is 5-for-26 with only two RBI.

Cold but with a buzz: Scott Linebrink has allowed two home runs and seven earned runs over his last three appearances totaling 2.2 innings. However, he was just picked up by the Brewers to bolster their bullpen.

San Francisco Giants

Hot: Barry Bonds has the media attention, but Pedro Feliz actually outperformed this week with two homers, five runs, eight RBI, and hit .360.

Even hotter: Tim Lincecum. On the season, he is 5-2 with 8 homers allowed, a 95:38 K/BB in 86.1 innings, an impressive 1.18 WHIP, and a 3.96 ERA. This week he got one of the team’s two wins by pitching eight innings scoreless innings with four hits, one walk, and eight strikeouts.

Cold: Ryan Klesko has an OPS of .795, but has seen his batting average and power decrease as the season has progressed. Over the last three weeks, he has only had one extra base hit, a double.

Next week, we will dive into the NL East and look at, hopefully, some exciting trades that go down this week. As for this week’s names to know, they are “Fredo” Gonzalez – the Jim Bowden of the Department of Justice, able to hang on no matter how inept he looks; The Simpsons movie – scoring an 81 on Metacritic right now, likely due to Springfield, Vermont being named their home; and Otter Creek White Sail, because the Vermont Chamber of Commerce pays me – in beers – to plug local breweries.

Have a question or comment for Don? Email him at donwebster@sportsgrumblings.com