MLB Streaks and Trends, Risers and Fallers Week 12: Luis Arraez Stays Hot, Pushes Average Above .400
From today until the end of the Major League Baseball season, Saturday is for looking at the various streaks and trends across the MLB, as well as those fantasy baseball players with rising or falling stock. Who should be your priority waiver wire pickups? Who deserves some of your precious FAAB? Are there any potential fantasy baseball buy low trade candidates? As always, we’ll start by talking about some fantasy baseball risers and fallers, highlighted by recent performances from Eddie Rosario and Jordan Hicks. Seattle Mariners’ right-hander Bryan Woo has been impressive thus far, despite what some of the numbers say, whereas Giancarlo Stanton and Nolan Gorman continue to trend in the wrong direction. St. Louis rookie Jordan Walker owns the longest active hit streak, and Luis Arraez is hitting over .400. Don’t miss out on your chance to see some other trending players to add in the Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire article courtesy of Adam Ronis. Let’s take a look at some of the notable hit streaks and current trends across Major League Baseball, as well as fantasy baseball risers and fallers.
| AVG | OBP | SLG | ||||||
| 1 | Luis Arraez | .402 | 1 | Luis Arraez | .452 | 1 | Shohei Ohtani | .630 |
| 2 | Ronald Acuna Jr. | .329 | 2 | Juan Soto | .425 | 2 | Yordan Alvarez | .589 |
| 3 | Austin Hays | .323 | 3 | LaMonte Wade Jr. Jr. | .418 | 3 | Corbin Carroll | .579 |
| 4 | Freddie Freeman | .319 | 4 | Randy Arozarena | .412 | 4 | J.D. Martinez | .565 |
| 5 | Bo Bichette | .316 | T5 | Will Smith | .405 | 5 | Ronald Acuna Jr. | .563 |
| xBA | xwOBA | Hard Hit% | ||||||
| 1 | Ronald Acuna Jr. | .349 | 1 | Aaron Judge | .476 | 1 | Aaron Judge | 62.6% |
| 2 | Corey Seager | .348 | 2 | Ronald Acuna Jr. | .455 | 2 | Matt Chapman | 59.6% |
| 3 | Luis Arraez | .344 | 3 | Corey Seager | .447 | 3 | Juan Soto | 59.5% |
| 4 | Freddie Freeman | .325 | 4 | Yordan Alvarez | .420 | 4 | Joey Gallo | 57.8% |
| T4 | Bo Bichette | .325 | 5 | Freddie Freeman | .419 | T5 | C. Seager/R. Acuna Jr. | 56.2% |
| Hit Streaks | |||||||||
| Streak | Player | AB | R | Hits | HR | RBI | BB | K | AVG/OBP/SLG |
| 13 | Jordan Walker | 45 | 6 | 18 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 11 | .400/.471/.733 |
| 12 | Alex Verdugo | 53 | 9 | 20 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 3 | .377/.421/.547 |
| 10 | Brendan Donovan | 44 | 6 | 17 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 8 | .386/.438/.523 |
| 9 | Bo Bichette | 36 | 2 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | .306/.324/.472 |
| 8 | Ha-seong Kim | 31 | 8 | 13 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 5 | .419/.455/.645 |
| 8 | Christian Walker | 31 | 4 | 12 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 1 | .387/.441/.677 |
| 7 | Luis Arraez | 30 | 6 | 18 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | .600/.625/.700 |
| 7 | Michael Harris | 27 | 4 | 12 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 3 | .444/.429/.630 |
| 7 | Maikel Garcia | 28 | 8 | 12 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | .429/.467/.571 |
| 7 | Steven Kwan | 31 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 4 | .355/.394/.484 |
| 7 | Ezequiel Tovar | 29 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 6 | .345/.333/.483 |
Fantasy Baseball Risers
Eddie Rosario, Atlanta Braves
It’s been a steady increase in terms of production for Rosario here in 2023, as he’s gotten better each month of the season. He’s been exceptional thus far in June, hitting .365 with eight home runs, three doubles, 17 runs scored, and 19 RBI across 17 games. I’m all for riding the hot hand, and Rosario is certainly that.
This inflated production will fade at some point, but for right now, he’s showing no signs of slowing down in a potent Atlanta offense.
Jordan Hicks, St. Louis Cardinals
Are we looking at the ninth inning guy in St. Louis? Is Hicks finally getting a high number of strikeouts like he should be? The answer to both of those, for now, seems to be yes. Hicks has three saves over the last week for the Cardinals, and over his last four appearances, he has seven strikeouts to zero walks with a perfect 0.00 ERA to go along with those three saves. The jury is still out for when Ryan Helsley will return, and if Hicks continues to pitch like this, it’s his job to lose for the foreseeable future. He’s been battling an illness recently, but it’s not anything that should keep him unavailable for any significant period of time.
Bryan Woo, Seattle Mariners
Woo has really only had one bad start this year, and it has inflated his numbers. For the year, he has a 5.09 ERA with 25 strikeouts across 17.2 IP (33.8 K%). However, if you remove his debut against the Rangers, Woo has a 2.30 ERA with a 21:4 K/BB ratio across 15.2 IP. His strikeout numbers in the minors were impressive, and through four starts, he’s posted a 37.5 O-Swing%, 71.8 Contact%, and 14.7 SwStr%. He has three pitches with a 33 percent whiff rate on the year, and his four-seamer has been lethal, registering a .182 BAA (.143 xBA), and 16 strikeouts. He’s much better than his numbers indicate, and he should be owned in most formats.
Honorable Mention: Gavin Williams, Henry Davis, Emmet Sheehan, Braxton Garrett, Joey Votto, Maikel Garcia
Fantasy Baseball Fallers
Nolan Gorman, St. Louis Cardinals
Gorman was on fire to begin the season, and fantasy managers were handsomely rewarded for their late round investment in the St. Louis slugger. However, since the calendar has flipped to June, it’s been a different story for Gorman. In the month of June, he’s slashing .117/.185/.217 with a 44.6 percent strikeout rate, and his reduction in hard contact doesn’t make that 71.4 percent fly ball rate look appealing. Gorman’s strikeouts held him back last year, and their resurgence of late is once again keeping him down and removing some of that early season shine he had.
He’ll have to cut back on the whiffs and improve his zone presence for a bounce back to occur. However, in shallower formats, despite how good he was to begin the season, someone else may be more valuable with one of your precious roster spots.
Giancarlo Stanton, New York Yankees
Stanton has actually kept the strikeouts in check this year, which is encouraging, but everything else is a disaster. His 5.4 percent walk rate is far and away the lowest of his career, his .183 batting average is putrid, and while his expected statistics point to some positive regression, it’s hard to buy into it. He’s hitting a ton of ground balls, and if you like Baseball Savant’s sweet spot metric, Stanton is even worse than he normally is in this department.
I don’t want to go as far as to say that Stanton is washed, but he’s fragile, not getting any younger, and he’s trending towards the worst statistical season of his career.
Honorable Mention: Triston McKenzie, Luis Severino, Sandy Alcantara, Yu Darvish, AJ Smith-Shawver, Brent Rooker,
Statistical Credits:
baseballsavant.mlb.com
fangraphs.com
baseballmusings.com
More Fantasy Baseball Content
Fantasy Baseball Prospect Report
Player News
Eddie Rosario has elected free agency.
Rosario refused an outright assignment to Triple-A Gwinnett over the weekend and will head to free agency instead. There’s a decent chance he winds up back with Atlanta on a brand-new minor league deal. The 33-year-old journeyman outfielder has gotten into five games this season between Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Mike Trout (knee) is scheduled to run on an Alter G (zero gravity) treadmill on Monday.
Angels manager Ron Washington told reporters they’ll see how Trout fares before making a decision on his next steps. The 33-year-old generation superstar remains without a definitive return timetable after hitting the injured list back on May 2 with a bone bruise in his left knee.
Rangers promoted OF prospect Alejandro Osuna to Triple-A.
Osuna checked in at 499th overall in Rotoworld’s dynasty rankings back on Opening Day after an impressive showing in spring training. The 22-year-old earns a promotion to the doorstep of the majors hitting .284/.363/.409 with 10 extra-base hits and seven steals in 31 games this season for Double-A Frisco. He doesn’t project as a high-upside fantasy contributor, but he does a little bit of everything well and should be able to carve out a role at the highest level someday.
Justin Martinez (shoulder) will face hitters on Wednesday in a live batting practice session.
There’s an outside chance Martinez is ready to return from the injured list later this week when first eligible, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet. The hard-throwing 23-year-old reliever is making steady progress and should be ready to rejoin Arizona’s high leverage mix at some point in the coming days.
Logan Gilbert (elbow) is scheduled to throw a bullpen session on Tuesday.
It’ll be Gilbert’s first bullpen session since landing on the injured list back on April 26 with a flexor strain in his right elbow. The 28-year-old fantasy ace will likely require a couple minor league rehab outings to get back up to speed, but it looks like there’s a decent chance he’s back in Seattle’s rotation at some point in June.
DJ LeMahieu (calf) was not activated prior to Monday’s game against the Mariners.
LeMahieu joined the Yankees in Seattle as they continue their West Coast trip, but he hasn’t been officially activated yet. That figures to happen prior to Tuesday’s contest. The 36-year-old will make his season debut this week after missing the first six-plus weeks of the year recovering from a calf injury.