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.

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

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