We’re beyond the mid-point of the season as Major League Baseball takes some time off for the 2019 All-Star Game (we don’t know about you, but isn’t it fantastic that 127 players, slight exaggeration, get named to the ASG and the surrounding festivities? Participation awards for all!). Obviously though, it’s an easy break point to review what has occurred to date. Ray Flowers takes a look at some of the interesting things he learned in the first half, starting with hitters.
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Cody Bellinger has been magnificent and is on his way to a run for the NL MVP Award. Don’t hear many mentioning that he has hit .261 since the start or June or that his OBP in that time, .375, is actually four points lower than the .379 batting average he had at the end of May.
Mookie Betts has had an overall disappointing first half with 13 homers, 10 steals, 40 RBI and a mere .272 OBP. It’s fair to be disappointed. Were you aware that he still leads baseball with 77 runs scored?
Michael Brantley was one of my favorite players while with the Indians. Then, his 2016 season was wiped out with a shoulder issue. Hopes were moderate about his future, but he returned in 2017 to appear in 90 games to assuage some concerns. Last year he was really good, but I don’t know how many realize that he is on pace to have his best season ever with the bat. He’s only stolen three bases, but he’s batting .324-12-46-48 in 84 games with chances to better hit careers bests in average (.327), homers (20), RBI (97) and runs (94).
Alex Bregman is batting just .265, a disappointing mark. However, he’s on pace for a 40-100-110 effort, so he should get a pass for those of you worrying about his effort to date. He also leads baseball with a 1.31 BB/K ratio which is stupendous.
Maybe Kris Bryant isn’t washed up after all? He’s on the cusp of a .300/.400/.550 slash line at .297/.403/.552. Impressive.
It really surprises me when I get a question from someone about if they should drop Byron Buxton? The guy is on pace for 16 homers, 22 steals and 78 runs scored… even with the injuries and missed time. He also has a .816 OPS that is better than Eugenio Suarez (.810), Jorge Soler (.805), Michael Chavis (.799) and Yasiel Puig (.797).
Miguel Cabrera sucks, according to most. He’s also hitting .304 with a .368 OBP. Here’s a list of players who cannot match those two numbers: George Springer, Josh Bell, Mike Trout, Juan Soto, Kris Bryant, Francisco Lindor, Xander Bogaerts, Justin Turner, Eduardo Escobar, Ozzie Albies, Austin Meadows, Javier Baez, Trea Turner, Willson Contreras… should I go on?
Mark Canha has a .371 OBP and .503 SLG. Players who can’t match both those numbers include Justin Turner, Mookie Betts and Bryce Harper.
Nick Castellanos has been slightly disappointing; I will totally grant you that. However, he’s pushed the average up to .282, seven points above his career mark, and his .810 OPS is one point off his 2017 mark and isn’t very far off the .831 mark he owns the last three years.
Derek Dietrich since the start of June (27 games): .153-1-4. So much for all those muscles and those great two months. Dietrich does lead baseball with 17 HBP, one more than Victor Robles. By the way, the rookie outfielder of the Nationals is on pace to go 24-65-85-20 this season, which would be a hell of a rookie effort.
Paul Goldschmidt is on pace for 68 RBI. That is all.
Howie Kendrick hit .315 in 2017, .303 in 2018 and he’s at .327 this season. However, it’s the run production that pops even more. In just 233 plate appearances, he already has 12 homers, his largest total since 2013, and his 47 RBI are already a 4-year high.
Austin Meadows has finally arrived, after years of physical setbacks with the Pirates. He hits the break batting .289 with 12 homers and eight steals in an impressive first half with Rays. However, his effort is tremendously front-loaded as he’s not remotely close to being a league average performer since the month of June started with a .255 wOBA and 58 wRC+. That’s right, in his last 32 games he’s been awful with a .214 average, no homers, six RBI and one steal in three attempts.
Whit Merrifield is hitting .306, he hit .304 last season, and he has 11 homers (12 last season) giving him a shot to surpass his career best of 19. He’s also scored 62 times suggesting he has a great shot at his first effort of 90-runs. Alas, after stealing 34 and 45 bases the last two years, an average of 39.5 steals, he has swiped 13 bases this season with seven caught stealing (he averaged nine the last two seasons).
In 201 plate appearances, with multiple teams, Kendrys Morales has a 1.00 BB/K ratio. He has one season of 0.60 and that was back in 2006.
Joc Pederson was an early season star in fantasy. At the Break, his average is down to .238 (career .230) and his OBP is .333 (career .338). He’s also hitting .172 with no homers in 29 at-bats against lefties.
Jorge Polanco has had a magical first half hitting .312-13-42-57-3 with a .882 OPS. However, note that since June started, he’s hit .274 and that he had hit .272 entering the 2019 campaign.
Jose Ramirez has 18 steals giving him a shot to best his career best total of 34.
Hunter Renfroe is tied for fourth in baseball with 27 homers. He has a mere 49 RBI. The other five men with 27 homers have at least 67 RBI. Further, Renfroe has scored just 40 times, or only 13 times when he didn’t knock himself in. The five above him on the homer chart all heave at least 57 runs scored. Don’t worry just about Renfroe. Take a look at his teammate Franmil Reyes who has been even worse at producing runs with 42 RBI and 38 runs on 25 bombs. That’s 80 runs produced. Hell, Asdrubal Cabrera has 85.
Austin Riley has 16 homers and 41 RBI in 49 games. Wow. His K-rate has also swelled to 34 percent dropping his average down to .257 and his OBP to .312. Further, remove his first nine games and he’s hitting .225 with a .287 OBP, and you have problems with Jay Bruce.
Carlos Santana has a .418 OBP and .540 SLG for the Indians. His career bets marks are .377 and .498. What makes those two numbers remarkable is the fact that… it’s actually his batting average who stands out the most. For his career Santana has hit .250 and he has hit .265 just once in, well, forever. He’s currently batting .297.
Danny Santana is hitting .300 with nine homers and nine steals. Santana also has a .848 OPS which is one point better than Marcell Ozuna. #Wow
Domingo Santana went 30/15 in 2017. Last season he went 5/1 as he spent a good deal of the season in the minors. Now a Mariner, Santana has been every bit the player he was in 2017 with a .286-18-63-52-6 effort.
Marcus Semien is one of four shortstop eligible players to have scored 60-runs. He is one of two who has scored 60, hit 14 homers and stolen five bases (the other is Trevor Story).
George Springer is on pace for a season of .303-32-80-85-9. Who wouldn’t have taken that when they drafted him? Oh yeah, he’s been hurt, right? He’s on pace to do all of that in 106 games played. Wow.
Fernando Tatis Jr., and I hate having to type Jr. for these guys, is on pace for a 25/20 season. If you said that back in March even those that supported him likely would have had reason for pause as that would have been just too much to expect in year one. What makes his current run so amazing is that he’s on pace to do that, the 25/20 thing… in under 100 games. He’s been remarkable.
I LIKE IN THE SECOND HALF
Buster Posey
Garrett Cooper
Daniel Murphy
Brian Anderson
Marcus Semien
Nick Senzel
Byron Buxton
Jesse Winker (hopefully)
Corey Dickerson
I’M CONCERNED ABOUT IN THE SECOND HALF
Mitch Garver
Trey Mancini
Jeff McNeil
Austin Riley
Jorge Polanco
Oscar Mercado
Kyle Schwarber
Kevin Pillar
Bryan Reynolds
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.
