Risers

Shin-Soo Choo, Texas Rangers: After batting just .107 in the entire month of April, Choo went 15-32 (.469) this past week with three home runs. His greatly improved performance has raised his season batting average to an acceptable .248. Choo is still owed $116 million by the Rangers, and he will have to keep up his improved pace to prove as a successful investment for Texas.

Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals: This is the second consevutive week that Bryce Harper has been named a riser, as he batted .455 two weeks ago with six home runs and 13 RBI. This past week, Harper batted 12-23 with three home runs and nine RBI. He now leads the National League in on-base percenage, slugging percentage, runs batted in, home runs, runs scored, and walks, and he leds the MLB in on-base plus slugging percentage.

Josh Harrison, Pittsburgh Pirates: This is Harrison's third consecutive week being on this series of articles, and his first as a member of the risers list. He combined to go 2-37 in his first two weeks on this series, but stepped it up this past week, going 12-25 with two home runs and four RBI. If he keeps up his performacne, Harrison can be a threat at the plate for Pittsburgh.

Corey Kluber, Cleveland Indians: Kluber only made one start this past week, but that didn't stop him from leading the league in strikeouts over the course of the week. Kluber allowed one hit and no runs in his one start, striking out 18. The next highest strikeouts was recorded by Max Scherzer, who struck out 17 in two starts over 14 innings. If Kluber records more starts similar to his most recent, he can look to win the AL Cy Young Award for the second year in a row.

Shelby Miller, Atlanta Braves: Miller was stellar this past week, allowing five hits and one run in sixteen innings with 12 strikeouts. He also came one out away from a no-hitter on Sunday before allowing a single to Justin Bour of the Miami Marlins. Miller now leads the MLB in ERA, WHIP, and BAA, with 1.33, 0.83, and .156, respectively.

Fallers

Steve Cishek, Miami Marlins: Cishek was removed from the closer's role this past week after blowing his third save of the season out of just six chances. Miami will revert to a closer-by-committee approach made up primarily of A.J. Ramos and Bryan Morris.

Josh Collmenter, Arizona Diamondbacks: Collmenter was awful this past week, pitching just 7 1/3 innings over two starts, while allowing 13 runs on 14 hits with three walks and just one strikeout. In one of his starts, he lasted just 1 1/3 innings against the Washington Nationals, surrender nine runs on eight hits. He is now 3-4 with a 5.27 ERA on the season.

R.A. Dickey, Toronto Blue Jays: Dickey was underwhelming this past week, to say the least. He allowed 17 hits and 13 runs in two starts over 11 innnings pitched, walking and striking out three batters. He is now 1-5 with 5.76 ERA, and has struck out 23 and walked 19 this season.

Scotter Gennett, Milwaukee Brewers: Genett struggled this past week, going 0-15 in five games with no walks and four strikeouts. He is now batting .154 with just three RBI on the season, and his starting job is in jeopardy to teammate Hector Gomez if he does not increase his performance.

Miami Marlins: The Marlins have struggled recently, going 1-5 this past week and losing 10 of their last 14 games, including almost being no-hit by Shelby Miller on Sunday. Miami also scored an MLB-lowest 23 runs. Their woes led to the firing of manager Mike Redmond, who has yet to be replaced. Miami has fallen to fourth in the NL East at 16-22, just 0.5 games out of last place.