It’s Saturday, so it’s time to grab your coffee, tea, or whatever your morning/early afternoon beverage of choice is and dive into some notable streaks and trends across Major League Baseball. The Boston Red Sox have two players, J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers, amongst the highest batting averages in Major League Baseball, and it would have been crazy at the start of the season to see Mike Trout and Taylor Ward with the fifth-highest xwOBA. When it comes to improving your fantasy baseball team, there are two simple questions to ask yourself when looking at your team. Who’s hot? And who’s not? Well, Byron Buxton and Alejandro Kirk are streaking, while Yonathan Daza and David Peralta are struggling. Let’s take a look at some of the notable hit streaks and current trends across Major League Baseball.

 

 


Stat Leaders

AVGOBPSLG
1Luis Arraez.3601Luis Arraez.4461Aaron Judge.664
2J.D. Martinez.3492Paul Goldschmidt.4182José Ramírez.647
3Rafael Devers.3353J.D. Martinez.4153Bryce Harper.639
4Paul Goldschmidt.3334Yandy Díaz.4094Yordan Alvarez.630
5Manny Machado.3325Alejandro Kirk.4075Mike Trout.601
xBAxwOBAHard Hit%
1Yordan Alvarez.3611Yordan Alvarez.4931Yordan Alvarez65.2
2Harold Ramírez.3452Aaron Judge.4692J.D. Davis63.6
3Yonathan Daza.3333Joc Pederson.4473Aaron Judge62.6
T3Bryce Harper.333T3Bryce Harper.4474Willson Contreras56.9
5Tim Anderson.3325M. Trout/T. Ward.4275Giancarlo Stanton56.0


Hit Streaks

Hit Streaks
StreakPlayerABRHitsHRRBIBBKAVG/OBP/SLG
10Maikel Franco405142518

.350/.366/.525

9Brandon Drury3412153426

.441/.472/.706

9Ian Happ342121362

.353/.439/.618

9Kyle Tucker315123774

.387/.500/.710

9Ji-Man Choi3371121027

.333/.361/.636

9Joey Votto3181131275

.355/.474/.774

8Oscar Gonzalez312130413

.419/.438/.548

8Edward Olivares263120213

.462/.500/.577

 

Who’s Hot

 


It’s time for another classic Byron Buxton tear where he looks like an unstoppable force and one of the best hitters in baseball. Yes, he has seven strikeouts over his last five games, but he also has five home runs, seven RBI, and eight runs scored in this hot streak, all while posting a massive 1.608 OPS. Despite a .236 average, he’s up to 17 home runs on the year, and for your DFS fanatics out there, Buxton is a machine at home, posting a 1.028 OPS with 14 of his 17 home runs in his home park.
 

 


I was one of the bigger naysayers of Marcus Semien coming into the year, but I cannot deny what he’s done of late. He had that historic day earlier this week, which definitely helped, but over his last seven games, he’s hitting .379 with more home runs (4) and stolen bases (4) than strikeouts. He’s been a fantasy machine of late, and while his average currently only sits at .308 for the month of June, it’s a stark improvement from his .157 average in April and .233 mark in May. His average exit velocity in June has rebounded a bit, too, much closer to his career mark.
 

 


If Alejandro Kirk is still available in your fantasy league, it’s time to snatch him up. He’s hitting .429 over the last week, .442 over the last two weeks, and over his last 30 games, he has a .610 slugging percentage with five home runs and 16 RBI. He had a slow April, but it has certainly picked up since then, as he hit .347 in May and is now hitting .429 in June.

After an unreasonable drop in his hard hit rate to open the year, it’s rebounding quite nicely, which explains his increased barrel rate each month of this season and how his xBA is an astounding .435 thus far in June.

 

 

 

Who’s Not

 


Yonathan Daza was one of my preferred pick ups a couple of weeks ago, but he’s been floundering of late — hitting just .160 with nine strikeouts over his last 25 at-bats. Daza is still managing to hit .318 for the year aside from this recent scuffle, but he has zero home runs and zero stolen bases. So, when Daza is not hitting for a solid batting average, he essentially provides zero value to your fantasy team, considering he does not run, and he doesn’t leave the yard often, or at all really. He can likely be dropped in most fantasy leagues for the time being, but if your team needs help with batting average and he breaks out of this funk, he can be added again at that time.
 

 


Despite hitting just .227 with a .300 OBP on the season, David Peralta is scuffling of late, and with a dearth of power in recent weeks, it’s hard to play him comfortably in fantasy baseball. After hitting a quality .277 in May with six home runs and a 23.2 percent strikeout rate, those numbers have plummeted to just .133 and 35.5 percent thus far in June. A .211 BABIP isn’t going to help the matter, nor will a 26.3 percent soft contact rate.
 

 


You better be desperate for stolen bases at this point if Myles Straw is still in your lineup on a daily basis. Over his last 15 games, he has three stolen bases, which is fine, but outside of that, he’s hitting .143 with a .238 OBP, with just one RBI and five strikeouts. In June specifically, he’s hit safely in just four of nine games, hitting .152 for the month, and his last extra-base hit was all the way back on May 24th. Since the calendar flipped to May, Straw has just four extra-base hits.

 

Statistical Credits:

baseballsavant.mlb.com
fangraphs.com
baseballmusings.com

 

 

 

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