Sliders: Brave new world for Infante

It looked like a misprint, like somebody had entered the wrong number from the catalogue and gotten a waffle iron in a shipment of hamster cages.

But when the dust had settled and the proper authorities were questioned, it proved to be no accident: Omar Infante was an All Star.

How could this happen? In a process where someone always gets snubbed, where managers actually campaign for their players to get the recognition they deserve, how could a light-hitting utility man -- one not even good enough to start for his own team -- earn a roster spot? It didn't make sense.

As fans swarmed the message boards in protest, players and coaches rushed to defend the move as if Infante was their adopted son or Charlie Manuel their adopted grandfather.

"I thought that was the greatest pick ever," Braves manager Bobby Cox told MLB.com. "It was a surprise pick for sure. But it makes all the sense in the world."

Maybe if you looked past the "All Star" label, it did. But no matter how much you tried to play up Infante's versatility and usefulness, you couldn't get around the awkwardness of his selection. In a game reserved for biggest names and the biggest numbers, he was as out of place as ... well, a waffle iron in a truckload of hamster cages.

At least, that's the way we all felt at the time, believing people would look back at the roster 15-20 years from now and say, "Really?"

But Infante is doing his best to make sure they have a different reaction.

Sliders ... These players are more than just hot or cold. Their recent play indicates a long-term change in value.

Omar Infante, 2B, Braves

The date was July 4. The All-Star reserves had just been announced, and after seeing Infante's name listed among them (and moving past my initial outrage), I felt compelled to write an update preempting all those Fantasy owners who might think, "Whoa, I can have an All-Star on my team," and grab him off the waiver wire. The analysis read as follows:

"Infante's manager and teammates may love the selection, but the fans are certainly scratching their heads. The purpose of this update isn't to get you excited about Infante's selection but to caution you from rating him too highly as a result of it. He's a reserve, and for good reason. His contact rate is above average, but he has no power or speed, which would already make him strictly an NL-only option. The fact he plays less than every day seals the deal. All-Star or not, he belongs on waivers in Fantasy."

Yes, I actually spelled out the purpose of an update within the update itself. Normally, that sort of thing is implied, but I didn't want to leave any room for interpretation. In Fantasy terms, Infante was rubbish.

But a funny thing happened about a month later: Chipper Jones suffered a season-ending injury. Suddenly, the deal was no longer sealed. Infante was an everyday player, and the only thing standing between him and Fantasy relevance was his performance.

Sunday's two-homer game pretty much sealed the deal there.

Since taking over as a starter -- which actually happened when Martin Prado went down temporarily in late July -- Infante has multiple hits in 14 of 24 games. He's batting .394 (41 for 104) with four homers during that stretch and is coming off a 43-point week in Fantasy. Instead of wilting from increased exposure, he has blossomed into a more complete hitter.

As a contender for the batting title with a slugging percentage better than that of Hanley Ramirez and Brandon Phillips, Infante appears to be the second coming of Placido Polanco -- an exceptional contact hitter with just enough power to make it count in Head-to-Head leagues.

But unlike Polanco, Infante qualifies at shortstop and remains unowned in 29 percent of Fantasy leagues.

A.J. Burnett, SP, Yankees

Whenever Burnett went through a rough stretch in the past, you knew to be patient. It was nothing new for him.

But those rough stretches always came at the beginning of the season, when he was still trying to regain the feel on his curveball. That hasn't been the case this year. In April and May, Burnett went 6-2 with a 3.28 ERA. In 14 starts since then, he's 3-9 with a 6.22 ERA.

And those aren't even the most disturbing numbers. They may help signal a problem, but they don't explain it the way this one does: After averaging 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings over his previous eight seasons, Burnett is down to 6.7 this year, which is about the level of a soft-tossing Kevin Slowey.

Burnett has always been a pitcher that has gotten by on pure stuff, on blowing hitters away with high-90s heat and a sharp-breaking curve. He really hasn't adjusted his approach since breaking into the league, which is why his ERA and WHIP have always been on the disappointing side. Now that his stuff is declining a bit at age 33, with his fastball averaging a career-low 93.1 miles per hour, he's at a point where he has to adjust, and it's not coming easily.

Burnett has always been something of an underachiever, but Fantasy owners were willing to overlook it because of his high strikeout rate. Now that it's gone, he's nothing but average.

And at a time in baseball history when pitching is back on the upswing, you can do a lot better than average -- perhaps even off the waiver wire.

Coco Crisp, OF, Athletics

Crisp has spent much of the last year working his way through the medical dictionary.

This season alone, he has suffered a broken pinkie, an intercostal strain and two instances of a left hamstring injury, all while working his way back from two shoulder surgeries -- one to repair a torn right labrum and the other to repair a torn left rotator cuff. It was enough to make anyone a Fantasy afterthought, and by the end of it all, his ownership percentage had dipped all the way to 13.

But before you write him off as a medical curiosity with a cutesy name, think way back to the days before he became a role player for the big-budget Red Sox, back when he was putting together back-to-back 15-15 seasons for the Indians and emerging as a nifty third outfielder in Fantasy.

You remember that guy? If not, you can tune in to the next A's game for a live look at relived history.

Crisp has eight multi-hit games over his last 17, batting .364 (24 for 66) with two home runs and seven stolen bases during that stretch. Since returning for good on June 22, he's the fifth-ranked outfielder and the 13th-ranked offensive player in standard Head-to-Head leagues. If he continues to perform at the pace he has been, he would finish with nine homers and 37 steals, which is nothing short of amazing considering he missed nearly half the season with injuries.

Crisp may have suffered some setbacks and endured some less-than-favorable roles, but as Aubrey Huff and Vladimir Guerrero have shown us, if the talent is there, the numbers could always come back. Crisp is hitting for power again and stealing more bases than ever before, making him something like the AL version of Angel Pagan.

Which makes him something worth adding in mixed leagues.

Jonathon Niese, SP, Mets

When Niese went on the DL with a hamstring injury in mid-May, he was just another overmatched Mets hurler rushed to the big leagues to help patch up a depleted starting rotation.

Since returning on June 5, he has a 2.70 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP over 15 starts, going seven innings or more in nine of them.

It's not the most surprising breakthrough considering he ranked 77th among Baseball America's top 100 prospects entering 2009, but it did happen suddenly, which might have caused some Fantasy owners to miss it.

Once you've spotted it, though, there's no mistaking it. He's not just trending the right direction; he's actually a changed pitcher. In 41 1/3 innings before the injury, he issued 18 walks, averaging 3.9 per nine innings. In 96 2/3 innings since, he has issued 25 walks, averaging 2.3 per nine innings.

He's staying ahead in the count, which allows him to make better use of his breaking pitches, and throwing fewer pitches overall, which allows him to pitch deeper into games. And even though he's relatively inexperienced, the hamstring injury should help him avoid getting shut down early like some of the other young pitchers around the league.

If you're an A.J. Burnett owner looking for someone a little more reliable, why not give Niese a look? He's owned in only 70 percent of leagues.

Hanging Sliders ... These guys look like Sliders, but alas, they really are just streaking.

Yuniesky Betancourt, SS, Royals

Last season, Betancourt hit six home runs. He has that many over his last 14 games.

The result is a career-high 13 home runs on the season, which puts him on pace for 17 to go along with 80 RBI.

But I smell something fishy.

I'm not suggesting Betancourt did anything untoward to achieve those numbers, but that a perfect combination of baseball's imperfect variables have allowed him to do something unsustainable. And you don't have to look back that far to figure it out. Over the last two weeks, he has 53 Fantasy points. He didn't have that many over the previous four.

In his six major-league seasons, Betancourt has a career .297 on-base percentage and a career .693 OPS -- numbers that would have run him out of the league already if he didn't happen to play shortstop. He has always been a glove-first player with no better than modest power, and nothing about his pedigree or approach suggests that will change.

If you're desperate for a shortstop, you can ride him while he's hot, but considering he's already setting career highs left and right, you have to wonder how much longer this streak will last.

Change-Up ... Whoops! I recently wrote something I regret and want to take it back.

Casey McGehee, 3B, Brewers

Back on Aug. 4, I looked at McGehee's .240 batting average over the previous two months and decided his lack of pedigree had finally caught up to him. I suggested he didn't deserve to be owned in 92 percent of leagues and felt pretty good about it, thank you very much.

The reaction was the biggest I've gotten all season.

Seriously, people were almost gleeful to point out when he began to turn it around, which tells me he either comes from an exceptionally large family or is the coolest guy I've never met.

But as overstated as their offense may have been, their underlying point was a valid one. Since that fateful column, McGehee is batting .407 (24 for 59) with five home runs in 15 games, revealing that two-month stretch to be nothing more than a prolonged slump and my talk of pedigree to be nothing more than dog's breath.

Thankfully, I keep a change-up in my back pocket for just such an occasion.

McGehee may be streaky, but he has weathered the storm and come out of it as strong as ever. He's clearly a deserving starter at third base, especially since so many players -- Pablo Sandoval, Mark Reynolds and Chone Figgins, among others -- have disappointed at the position.

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