Every Saturday from now until the end of the Major League Baseball season, we are going to dive into some notable current hit streaks and trends of some of the biggest stars and possible free agent pickups in fantasy baseball. There’s a guy in Oakland who is hardly owned in any ESPN fantasy baseball leagues, yet has a .370 batting average on the season. Trevor Story is surging, and Texas’ Kole Calhoun leads Major League Baseball in home runs over the last week. You gotta love baseball! Without further ado, let’s dive into some of the stat leaders in Major League Baseball, and those that command attention in your fantasy baseball leagues.

 

MLB Stat Leaders

AVGOBPSLG
1Taylor Ward.3701Taylor Ward.4811Taylor Ward.713
2Manny Machado.3632Manny Machado.4372Mike Trout.683
3J.D. Martinez.3493Mike Trout.4273Aaron Judge.664
4Tim Anderson.3464Freddie Freeman.4144Bryce Harper.634
5Devers/France/Goldschmidt.3275Y. Diaz/J. Bell.4015CJ Cron.604
xBAxwOBAHard Hit%
1Yonathan Daza.3661Mike Trout.4751Aaron Judge66.0
2Harold Ramírez.360T1Aaron Judge.4752Yordan Alvarez60.4
3Manuel Margot.3483Yordan Alvarez.4643José Abreu57.3
4Willi Castro.3374Taylor Ward.4554Giancarlo Stanton56.6
5Luis Robert.3365Giancarlo Stanton.4455Willson Contreras56.2

MLB Hit Streaks

Hit Streaks
StreakPlayerABRHitsHRRBIBBKAVG/OBP/SLG
13Paul Goldschmidt541023416310.426/.448/.833
13Santiago Espinal446170447.386/.429/.500
12Trea Turner457161876.356/.444/.533
11Manual Margot3781831433.486/.525/.838
11Yonathan Daza418160735.390/.435/.488
10Taylor Ward398153868.385/.467/.718
8Edward Olivares263120213.462/.500/.577
8Jorge Soler326104826.312/.371/.719
7Brendan Rodgers306121814.400/.419/.633
7Marcell Ozuna295947211.310/.355/.724
7Corey Seager26681447.308/.400/.500

Who’s Hot

 


In a league with Aaron Judge, Yordan Alvarez, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., it’s Texas’ Kole Calhoun that has the most home runs in baseball over the past week. Not only does Calhoun have five home runs in his last seven games, but he has an impressive .375/.448/1.083 triple slash, and if math isn’t your strong suit, that comes out to a 1.531 OPS, which is also the best in baseball over the last week. The veteran outfielder is currently sporting career bests in terms of his barrel rate and average exit velocity, and while he’s hitting just .243 on the year, his xBA of .269 indicates that maybe Calhoun has some staying power for fantasy baseball managers.

 

 


I don’t want to pat myself on the back, but I wrote about Trevor Story being a buy-low opportunity in fantasy baseball. A position change and a new home can take some adjusting, and Story has routinely been a streaky guy who gets better as the weather warms up. It was a slow start for Story, but his time was coming, and that time is now. Over the last week, he’s hit .320 with five home runs, 12 RBI, 10 runs scored and four stolen bases! This type of production is what Boston was looking for when signing him this offseason. He’s sporting a career best barrel rate at the moment, and when you look at the below graphic, even prior to his recent outburst, the makings of a bounce back were present.

 

 

Barrera is likely available in your league, and with the way he’s seeing the ball now, he’s worth picking up. He’s hitting .474 over the last week with a .500 OBP, and for the 2022 season as a whole, he’s sporting a .370 average with one home run and one stolen base. He won’t contend for the top of any exit velocity leaderboards, but he makes a lot of contact, doesn’t miss too often (11.8 Whiff%) and has enough speed to help him out. This hot streak won’t last forever, but he can help your fantasy team right now, and throughout his lengthy time in the minors, he’s shown that he can help in the speed department.

 


 Who’s Not

 


Gallo is going to have these hot and cold streaks, but right now, he’s mired in the latter, having recorded just one hit in his last 18 at-bats with nine strikeouts. When you delve into the numbers further, during this horrid seven game stretch, despite not leaving the zone all that much, he’s making contact just 57.9 percent of the time in total, and just 58.5 percent on pitches in the zone. Also, his swinging strike rate of 20.3 percent is even worse than his 18.2 percent mark for the season. He’ll break out of it and put up some homers in bunches, but this is a rough stretch he’s stuck in.

 


A couple of weeks ago, Eric Hosmer was scattered all over the top players in various offensive categories. Well, a 2-for-25 stretch over the last week won’t do anyone any favors. He’s not striking out a ton, which is encouraging, and he’s really just been done in by a .100 BABIP, diminished average exit velocity and a lack of barreled baseballs.

 

Realmuto is hitting just .105 over the last seven days, but more troubling is that he has the fifth-lowest average exit velocity in that span with a immense 28.1 degree launch angle. Prior to this rough stretch, his average exit velocity was nearly eight miles per hour higher. Realmuto is one of the best in the fantasy business at what he does, so he’ll turn it around. We’ll just chalk this one up to a rough patch.

Statistical Credits:

  • baseballsavant.mlb.com
  • fangraphs.com
  • baseballmusings.com
 

 

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