Nolan Arenado hit 28 homers his first 244 big league games. This season, in 106 trips onto the field, he’s gone deep 27 times. Just nuts. His fly ball rate is way up to 45 percent, it’s not even 40 percent for his career, and a season after his HR/F ratio was 11.4 percent he’s currently the owner of a 17.1 percent mark. Can he sustain that pace? Unlikely. Should also be noted that despite all the success he has no steals, is batting .277 which is an exact match for his career mark, and his .317 OBP is league average and just two points above his career mark. Been a great season, but his overall game hasn’t developed as far as some appear to be suggesting.
Chris Bassitt has a 2.18 ERA his last five starts. That run has brought his ERA down to 2.48 and his WHIP to 1.05. Doesn’t get grounders (37 percent) while being a bit fortunate with his HR/F (5.0 percent), or strike out a bunch (7.29 per nine), and that .255 BABIP is low. Still, he hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his 12 outings (seven starts) this season. He’s worth rolling out there in mixed leagues right now.
Matt Carpenter was great. Then he was horrible. Now he is great again (over his last six games he has four homers, eight RBIs and seven runs scored). That recent run has pushed his pace up to go .266-25-85-95. Do you really care that his average is down .030 points if his counting numbers are that impressive?
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Michael Cuddyer has been activated from the DL by the Mets. Instead of the obvious, demoting Michael Conforto, the Mets sent down Eric Campbell. That means Conforto will likely share time on the filed with Cuddyer and it would stand to reason he would be the side of the platoon you want being that he will be facing lefties. Guessing, but why keep Conforto around if you’re not using him regularly?
Khris Davis has four homers and 12 RBIs his last seven games. He’s also hitting .320 with a .379 OBP in that time. He’s finally healthy and swinging a big bat. Last season he had 22 homers and 69 RBIs over 501 at-bats. This season in 223 at-bats he has 11 homers and 35 RBIs. Yep, pretty much the same pace. The walk rate is way up, I like that, with 28 walks this season (32 last year), but the K-rate is also way up at 27.2 percent (69 already). Not good. Even with the hot streak his .242 batting average is two points off the .244 mark he had last year. His Isolated Power mark is .220. The mark last year was .214. Add it all up and he’s the same guy he was last year this year. He’s just been incredibly hot the past week.
Joey Gallo has 12 homers and 26 RBIs over his 22 games at Triple-A this season. It’s the most production you will ever see from a guy who
has been this bad. He’s been awful. Gallo has scored 13 runs in 33 games. He’s scored one time when he didn’t knock himself in on a homer. Moreover, he has struck out 57 times in 128 at-bats leading to a 38.8 percent K-rate. You simply cannot play in the big leagues doing that. He’s also hitting .195. Not close to the bigs. And yes, I was RIGHT about him despite what you all said.
Cole Hamels has a 4.91 ERA his last four starts. His xFIP in that time is 3.08, the 19th best mark in baseball in that timeframe. Keep the faith. Hamels will be fine.
Hisashi Iwakuma has a 3.00 ERA his last six starts as he rounds into shape. Moreover, his 2.85 xFIP the past 30 days is the 13th best mark in baseball. He’s walking just 1.29 batters per nine and even has the K-rate up over 7.9. Pitching well is the vet right now.
Rougned Odor just won’t stop. Over his last five games he’s batting .524 with five RBIs. His continued hitting has pushed his season long average up to .283 and his OBP to .343. The most impressive number might be his .469 SLG though. Dude weighs like 170 lbs and he is really driving the ball. About the only negative is his continued inability to steal bases effectively. Last year he was 4-for-11 and this season just 5-for-5 in steal attempts.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday at 8 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).