We’re at the point of the season that we kinda know who players are. At least we think we do. Are they performing up to expectations or are the struggling to live up to the hopes placed on their shoulders? That said, do we really “know” who players are? Is it possible that the guy that started out hot has seen his performance cave of late? Perhaps that slow starter, whose overall numbers are still lacking, has actually performed pretty darn well of late? Let’s investigate how these players have performed of late and see if they meet your expectations for the players.
HITTERS: THE LAST TWO WEEKS – HOT
David Dahl the last 13 games: .396-2-11-13-1 with a .451 wOBA. The season long slash line sparkles (.329/.376/.531).
Edwin Encarnacion has seven homers, 12 RBI and 10 runs his last 12 games. His .532 SLG would be his best mark in four seasons.
Eduardo Escobar has a .346-5-14-11 line the last 12 games. EE has hit 20 homers with 70 RBI each of the last two seasons, and he’s on pace to not only do that this season but to blow past those numbers since he already has 17 homers and 54 RBI and his .950 OPS is fully .203 points above his career mark.
Todd Frazier’s last 12 games: .350-4-11-11. He’s old, boring and far from an average booster. But when healthy, as he is now, Frazier can still produce runs. His OPS is up to .790 and that would be a four-year high. The walk rate is a three year low though, and the last time he hit .265, his season long mark to date, was 2014.
Niko Goodrum has an impressive .333-3-5-12-13 line with a .625 SLG the last 11 games, just as folks were giving up on him. He’s on pace for a potential 15/15 season in AL-only leagues, and given that he qualifies at first/second and potentially shortstop/third base/outfield, well, you’ve got yourself a hell of a weapon in that format.
JaCoby Jones has three homers and a .417/.475/.833 slash line the last 11. Finally. We’ve kinda been waiting for something from Jones for a while now. The frustrating part is that there seems to always be a strong period of success followed by abject failure. Over his last 650 plate appearances he has 19 homers and 19 steals, so AL-only leaguers have a nice option here.
Howie Kendrick is having the best season of his impressive career as he approaches his 36th b-day. His last 11 games he has 12 RBI, 12 runs scored and a .417 average. Kendrick already has 11 homers, his first season with double-digits dongs since 2013, though his .333 average would be a career best the guy has hit .303 and .315 the past two seasons and is a career .292 hitter. The power is gonna regress. The base hits likely won’t that much though.
DJ LeMahieu simply will not stop hitting. It’s getting bonkers. Over his last 11 games he’s gone .340-3-14-9 and his season long slash line is now .321/.367/.468. Didi Gregorius is back now, so DJL is likely to start losing some at-bats s the Yanks try to stuff everyone into the lineup, but he’s been tremendous to this point and is already within 25 RBI of his career best total of 66.
Starling Marte is out of control hitting .426 with three homers, three teals and 11 runs his last 12 outings. The recent stretch has his OPS up to .806, better than his career .785 mark, and he still has an outside shot at another 20/25 season.
Colin Moran has gone deep five times with 11 RBI and 11 runs in 13 games. The OPS is up to .803 but he’s hitting just .239 on the road (.310 at home).
Mike Moustakas has hit seven homers with 11 RBI and 10 runs scored in 10 games. That’s actually seven homers and 11 RBI his last nine games.
Corey Seager is finally hitting with a .396/.431/.771 line with 12 RBI over 13 games. He’s working on an 8-game hitting streak where he’s been even better with a .424/.441/.727. Finally healthy, the breakout is happening.
Marcus Semien has four homers, 11 RBI and 10 runs scored his last 13 games. One of the most consistent counting category guys up the middle that no one talks about. He’s got a shot to return to the 20/10 level he reached in 2016 and a year after going for 70 RBI and 89 runs he’s driven in 34 with 43 runs scored in 68 games for the Athletics.
Christin Stewart’s last 11 games: .378/.429/.600. He’s had an up and down season, performance wise and with his health, but he’s streaking now. The season long K-rate of 23 percent is very manageable, but it would be nice to see that HR/FB ratio improve (it was 9.5 percent last season in limited work and it’s 9.6 this season).
HITTERS: THE LAST TWO WEEKS – COLD
Tim Anderson has a .244/.262/.415 line the last two weeks. His overall numbers are still tremendous (.320-9-29-33-15), but are you really buying that is who he’s gonna be the rest of the way? I’m not. Since May 1st Anderson has hit .276 with a .315 OBP and a .390 SLG. Those are league average numbers. Further, they look completely at place given his career marks (.265/.294/.421). It wouldn’t be the worst idea to deal Anderson at his peak, which certainly seems like it’s today.
Matt Carpenter had two homers and a steal, but also a .222/.300/.389 line the last two week. Nothing has gone wright this season. I could sit here and spend a lot of time proving to you that he’s not that far off, and I believe it, but sometimes what should happen, doesn’t. Starting to feel like that might be the case with Carpenter this season.
Nick Castellanos went .209-1-4-6 with a .272 wOBA. Nick had back-to-back seasons of 23-89. This season, through 60 games, he has six homers and 23 RBI. It’s going to take a pretty epic run to get him back to those levels this season. The homers should improve though as his 8.0 HR/FB ratio is way below the 14 percent mark he posted the last three years.
Matt Chapman had a .200/.286/.340 line. Overall, he’s fine with a .852 OPS, just off the .864 mark he posted last season.
Michael Chavis was awful the last 13 games without a homer and a .156/.208/.222 line. His K-rate has surged to over 32 percent as his average has fallen below .250. He’s still been pretty darn fortunate as well with that 26 percent HR/FB ratio, so there’s likely a further slowing in the homer category coming as well. The game just ain’t that easy folks.
Paul DeJong had just three RBI and hit .150 with a .250 OBP the last 11 outings, but a slowdown was always on the horizon. He still has a .847 OPS which is above his .811 career mark and nearly a direct match for his 2017 mark of .857. The walk rate is way up which is a positive. He should be fine, but he’s not a star.
Jonathan Lucroy scored one runs and had a .131 wOBA. He has two hits in 11 games. The average has fallen all the way to .230 and the OBP is now in the .290’s. With a 48 percent ground ball rate, and a BABIP of .235, things are not trending in the right direction, though base hits should be more frequent.
Yasiel Puig went .147-1-2-2-2 in nine games. He might be on pace to go 25/20, but no one cares when the slash line is .207/.252/.378. The expectations were too high. The performance has been too low.
Austin Riley had four homers and 12 RBI, which is miles from cold. Same time, that .224 average and .269 OBP aren’t very good, are they? Over the last 11 games he’s struck out 15 times in 45 at-bats.
Eugenio Suarez went .189-0-2-3-0 in 10 games. Pretty sure he will be fine though.
Alex Verdugo went .205-0-3-2-1. He’s gone a good job stepping up for the Dodgers, but with only four homers and a .791 OPS he’s barely worth looking at in standard mixed leagues leaving him as more of a 15-team league option.
Kolten Wong hit .256 with a .286 OBP. As bad as that average looked, it’s actually an improvement on his .232 season long mark or the .249 mark he posted last season. He’s just not a good hitter, despite that host spurt that fooled some fools.
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.
