The last two weeks there has been a lot of change in the performance of a whole host of hitters. Some guys who started off hot, have since slowed. Conversely, some who started slowly have started to pick things up. You know Ray, he’s way more negative than positive, so the majority of the piece will focus on batters that have seen their offense all but dry up the last two weeks.
HITTERS: THE LAST TWO WEEKS – HOT
Willy Adames has a .357 average and .919 SLG his last eight games. He’s actually hit after a painfully slow start to the year.
Jorge Alfaro has vanished offensively with a .358 OPS his last 38 plate appearances. So much for that hot start of his.
Brian Anderson just cannot seem to find his footing. His last 11 outings he has no runs scored while hitting .200 with a .225 SLG.
Cody Bellinger has hit .357 with two steals. He’s also gone 12 games without a homer.
Charlie Blackmon is back to being a star. After all the early concern, some folks panicked. Did you? The last 11 outings Blackmon has been an absolute monster with a .348-5-15-10 line with a 208 wRC+. Breath that sigh of relief now.
For those convinced that Kris Bryant is washed up… you haven’t been paying attention. The last 12 games Bryant has five homers, 13 RBI and 14 runs scored. He’s hit .325 with a .500 OBP and .800 SLG leading to a .519 wOBA. Hopefully, you bought low or held on for dear life as the explosion occurred. Teammate Anthony Rizzo has a bad back, but it hasn’t slowed his bat at all given the five homers, 13 RBI and .732 SLG over 111 outings. Willson Contreras has three homers and a 169 wOBA the last 11 outings.
Derek Dietrich swings for the downs every time up. The last 12 games it’s worked with five homers and an .80 SLG. Eugenio Suarez has six homers, 12 RBI and a .414 wOBA the last 14. Yasiel Puig has three homers and five steals the last 14 outings.
Avisail Garcia has hit .359 with two homers and a steal.
Jose Martinez has been blasting for a while now. He’s been at the peak of his blasting ways the last 14 outings with a .333/.444/.533 line/ He’s also hit two homers with 11 RBI.
Jeff McNeil lived off a .400 BABIP on his way to a .370/.453/.522 slash line of glory his last 53 plate appearances. Teammate Michael Conforto has a .420 OBP his last 50 PAs. Amed Rosario has two steals and eight RBI as he’s hit .311 with a .344 wOBA.
Mitch Moreland has been the boss the last two weeks. In just nine games he’s the owner of a 1.217 OPS. He’s gone deep with five homer and 14 RBI, a huge number. Other Red Sox success… Christian Vazquez has a .500 OBP and 1.093 OPS in nine games (making no sense whatsoever). Over 13 games Rafael Devers has 14 runs, 14 RBI, two steals and two homers.
Hunter Pence is a god. You know it. I know it. We all know it. Acting as if he found the Fountain of Youth in Texas, Hunter has been one of a handful of men you could call the best hitter in the baseball recently. Over his last 10 games he has four homers. Star. He has 12 RBI. Superstar. He has a 1.339 OPS. MegaStar.
Franmil Reyes finally lived up to all that advanced metric hype with a whirlwind two weeks that includes five homers, 11 RBI and nine runs scored. He’s also the owner of a .685 SLG and a .424 wOBA.
Raimel Tapia has been blazing, even as he’s not getting completely full-time work. Tapia has a .389/.421/.722 line over his last 11 games as he’s finally proven to the Rockies that he deserves to be out there. Meanwhile, Ian Desmond has also started to hit with seven RBI, seven runs and a .959 OPS his last 11 games as the struggle for playing time is real.
Justin Turner was solid, then he struggled a bit, then he exploded. The last 12 games he has 12 runs and 12 runs scored. He’s also socked a massive six homers leading to a .488 wOBA. All of a sudden, hit overall numbers make him look like Justin Turner.
HITTERS: THE LAST TWO WEEKS – COLD
Tucker Barnhart hit .097 with a .194 SLG the last 13 games.
Robinson Cano hurt his hand, and he hasn’t hit much since. Over his last 10 games he’s at .237 with a measly RBI over 41 plate appearances. Brandon Nimmo is right there with him in the pity party with no homers, no steals, two runs scored and a .086 average with a .143 SLG over 12 games. Goodness. Wilson Ramos is at .176-0-3 over his last nine games.
Brian Dozier still isn’t hitting, and that’s extremely disappointing. He has one RBI and a .213/.302/.298 slash line his last 14 outings. Teammate Anthony Rendon also hasn’t hit in his six games since returning from injury (.200 wOBA with a 17 wRC+).
Matt Carpenter started slowly last year. He’s doing the same thing again this year with a terrible .170-1-6-4-1 line with a .524 OPS over 14 games.
Yan Gomes had no homers and a .222 SLG.
Austin Hedges has had every chance on offense by the Padres, and he continues to be a significant disappointment with a .154-0-0 effort the last eight games.
Ender Inciarte has three Gold Gloves. Austin Riley has four games in the outfield in his professional career. Still, folks want the Braves to make a move to the potential superstar with the bat after watching Inciarte go .194-0-5-3-0 the last two weeks.
Brandon Lowe has a massive 19 punchouts his last 46 plate appearances. He’s still hit a solid .283 in that time, but he simply must make better contact or things are gonna get ugly, quickly.
Daniel Murphy just can’t seem to find his sea legs as he had no homers, no steals, a .167 batting average and a .544 OPS his last 11 outings.
Rougned Odor is… struggling. He has two homers and two steals, but he also has a .105 BABIP, a .105 average and a .413 OPS his last 10 games. That’s barely worse than teammate Nomar Mazara with his .158-1-2-3-0 line with a .437 OPS. They both have stunk.
Joc Pederson has hit .184/.233/.370 the last 10 games.
Kyle Schwarber had a .442 OBP, but he also had just four RBI a .207 batting average and .310 SLG over 11 outings. Teammate Jason Heyward has been an early season revelation. He also stopped hitting the last 12 outings with a .170/.220/.340 line with a pathetic .239 wOBA.
Justin Smoak has dropped the pace of late, all the way down to no homers and one RBI over 12 games. Toss in a .468 OPS and you have a flailing bat. He’s also hitting .108 the last two weeks. Teammate Danny Jansen has hit .130 with no RBI and one run scored in eight games. Meanwhile, Vlad Guerrero has a .171-0-1-0-0 line over his last 40 plate appearances as he’s been about as bad a fantasy option as there is in the game.
Joey Votto has to start hitting at some point, doesn’t he? He has two RBI his last 13 games with a mere .160 average and .235 wOBA. He also has 13 punchouts in 50 at-bats.
Kolten Wong was hot, then he wasn’t. Over his last 13 games he’s gone .190/.271/.238 with an embarrassing 43 wRC+.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday-Friday, 8-10 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). Follow Ray’s work on Twitter (@baseballguys) and be sure to listen to his podcast work too.
