After some heated competition and a long selection process, I have been chosen to take over “The Real Deal” column here at MLB Front Office. I will pick 5 players that had hot weeks and to address how real I think they are and what to expect from them. Since the trade deadline is passed I will finish this season looking mainly at players who are widely available.

1) Adam Lind – 8/2/6/0/.385

Adam has been tops in runs this week and had 2 homers. He has started to show his power stroke and I can’t quite tell yet if he will reach 30, but he should approach that mark. His K% is too high to stay above .300 over a full season, but he is not a drain at average. Lind is still available in about half of leagues and is worth owning in mixed leagues. I think he is the Real Deal.

2) Willie Harris – 5/3/7/0/.333

Seems a year can’t go by that we don’t have a really hot week or two by Willie. My question is how does Willie have 12 homers this year?!? His HR/FB is 13.3% and his career rate is only 4.9%, so this is an odd outlier I think. His average is also not likely to help either. He is a career .249 hitter and he strikes out almost 20% of his at bats. Willie is not the Real Deal.

3) Rajai Davis 2/1/1/3/.308

Rajai has 21 steals on the season in only 147 plate appearances so we know he has speed, but with so many strikeouts and so few walks can he hold any value other than steals? He seems to be another .250 hitter like Harris. He is also still stuck in a reserve role in Oakland so he won’t keep up much value. If he gets a starting job he could get burner value in some leagues, but don’t count on him for much this year. He is not the Real Deal.

4) Denard Span – 4/1/8/2/.393

Span is a little over his head with the average and OBP based on his BABIP of .360, but he has a good BB% and K% so I think he could be near .300. So you can expect him to keep putting up the runs and steals as long as he is starting. Based on his numbers I would actually prefer him to Ellsbury as his better BB% should lead to more runs and steals. He has had lower BB% rates in different levels of the minors so he could walk a bit less, but 200 AB’s is a good judge. He is the Real Deal.

5) Glen Perkins – 2/4/2.57/1.07

The 4 strikeouts in those 2 games plus he had 2 walks so that K/BB of 2 does not look that good. It’s funny to see that his exact career K/BB in the majors is 2. He has gotten lucky this week and this is a reminder how much wins are based on luck. His FIP this year is 4.58 so don’t expect his ERA to be under 4.00 for you and he doesn’t get enough strikeouts to have much value. He is not the Real Deal.

That's all for this week. Check back next week for another five players.