Now that the dust has completely settled from the MLB Trade Deadline, it’s time to get back to business here in the fantasy baseball world. Your league’s trade deadline is probably coming up pretty soon, if it’s not already here and you need to check in with who’s come out the gate strongest here in the second half. We’ll start with the hitters today and go through some of the top performers since the All Star break, avoiding the obvious ones. You don’t need me to point out that Nolan Arenado is really good, do you? I didn’t think so. So we’ll hit the top three least-heralded players in each of the five main fantasy baseball hitter categories.

Batting Average

Gerardo Parra, OF COL – Remember this guy? His failure to break out during an injury-riddled 2016 and the addition of names like Ian Desmond and David Dahl pulled him off most people’s radar, but he’s been a solid fill-in guy throughout the season. Now with Desmond back on the DL with a calf issue, Parra is back at it and batting .423 over 58 plate appearances here in the second half. He’s obviously not going to keep hitting .400 for the rest of the season, but he showed us in 2015 he is capable of hitting for a decent average (.291) and should be an every-day guy while Desmond remains out.

Chris Taylor, 3B/OF LAD – He’s the hottest commodity around right now, it seems and he’s batting .409 over 68 plate appearances since the break. He offers up a little bit of pop and a splash of speed, but he’s most attractive due to his high contact rates and strong batting average. The Dodgers have him locked down to play every day in left field but the infield eligibility makes him even more attractive to fantasy owners.

Eduardo Nunez, SS/3B BOS – True to their word, the Red Sox have been playing Nunez every day since acquiring him from the Giants and you should be seeing some nice added-eligibility to his repertoire. It would be nice to see him draw more walks so he’s not so reliant on his BABIP to keep his average up, but he also doesn’t strike out much which makes him a good candidate to maintain a solid batting average for you the rest of the way. He’ll also be throwing you a bunch of stolen bases too, so that’s always a nice bonus.

Home Runs

Justin Smoak, 1B TOR – And the hits just keep on coming! This has been an unbelievable breakout season for Smoak, though let’s face it…it’s about five years past the date all those Smoak-truthers were telling us. Still, you can’t deny what he’s doing and it’s seasons like these upon which fantasy championships are built. You always need one of those guys who just blows up from out of nowhere. Smoak has eight home runs since the break, giving him 31 on the season and there’s no reason to believe he can’t reach that 40-homer plateau by year end. Just keep him in your lineup and enjoy the ride.

Didi Gregorius, SS NYY – With seven home runs since the break and 17 on the season, Gregorius is about to breach the 20-homer barrier for the second-straight season. The best part of owning him this year was that, even after such a strong season last year, he wasn’t on many people’s radars because he was always lauded for his glove and never for his bat. Well, let’s give it up for being a lefty in Yankee Stadium as the short porch in right has turned our boy Didi into one of the better hitters at the shortstop position and his performance has halted the Yankees’ search for a long-term replacement for Derek Jeter. Funny thing though is that more than half his home runs have come on the road, so maybe scouts were just wrong about his hitting make-up.

Michael Conforto, OF NYM – We’ve come a long way, Mr. Conforto, and congratulations are in order. Fantasy pundits were praising him for his early-season performance but continuously ran him down for not having a long-term job. Well, injuries aside, he’s done more than enough to push his way into an ever-day job and with another seven home runs here in the second half, he’s got 21 on the season. The 25.3-percent HR/FB rate might be a little high, but there’s nothing in his batted ball data that indicates he’s going to stop performing at a high level.

RBI

Jonathan Schoop, 2B BAL – I absolutely love this guy and have been standing on the rooftops screaming for people to trade for him, especially in keeper leagues. His 24 RBI since the break ranks second only to Nolan Arenado and he is literally one grand slam away from re-establishing new career highs in home runs and RBI. Some might dog him for having such a lame walk rate, but I’m looking at his year-to-year growth, much the way I did when I predicted Adam Jones’ breakout campaign in 2012. The two of them have very similar make-up with regard to their approach at the plate and Schoop seems to be on that very same trajectory. Enjoy the production and look to own him in 2018 as well.

Willson Contreras, C CHC – After a slow but steady first-half of the season, Contreras has taken his game to another level since the All Star break; the level everyone thought they would be getting back in April when they drafted him. He’s got 18 RBI in 15 games since the break and he’s setting the bar nice and high for what we can expect from him over the course of a full season. The Cubs’ acquisition of Alex Avila won’t have any effect on his playing time and he’s got the potential of finishing this season as a top five catcher, if he’s not already there now. Batting in the middle of the Cubs lineup is only going to afford him greater RBI chances, so expect the production to maintain over the final two months.

Nick Williams, OF PHI – He’s been quite the pleasant surprise since the Phillies started giving him regular playing time and his 18 RBI since the break have been a huge boon to those fantasy owners who grabbed him off waivers quickly. The Phillies did pick up Hyun Soo Kim during the trade deadline, but he’s only likely to see one, maybe two, starts per week and while he spelled Williams just the other day, there’s nothing that says he won’t also spell Aaron Altherr at times either. Consider Williams a full-time lefty bat with good pop and a viable fantasy outfielder for the duration of the season.

Runs Scored

DJ LeMahieu, 2B COL – Obviously, hitting second in the Rockies lineup and right in front of Arenado is going to afford him with plenty of opportunities to score some runs. He’s got a career OBP of .355, but his .377 mark this year and .417 mark from the season before indicate his numbers being dragged down by mediocre partial-season from when he was first breaking into the majors. You can feel confident that his OBP numbers this year and last are more indicative of the player he is and his 18 runs scored here in the second half already put him on pace to surpass the 47 runs he scored in the first half.

Alex Bregman, 3B HOU – The fact that Bregman has 16 runs scored since the break is truly a testament to the level at which he is playing right now when you take into consideration that he bats seventh or eighth in the lineup. His .338 OBP in the first half was okay, but this .397 mark here in the second has to make you feel good about locking Bregman into your lineup with the hope of more runs scored. He’s cut the strikeout rate in half and is making nice, clean, hard contact since the break. If he can maintain a similar on-base rate, George Springer will likely take care of the rest for you as he continues to drive in runs from the bottom of the order.

Eric Hosmer, 1B KC – Hosmer’s on-base percentage has been doing that every-other-year thing and this season, it’s back on the up with his .379 mark on the season. That means his .403 OBP here in the second half shouldn’t come as much of a surprise and yes, he is more than capable of sustaining it. OK, maybe not the .400 mark for the next two months, but given the reduction in strikeout rate, the increased contact rate and the fact that he’s spraying the ball to all fields much better this year, it’s not tough to see that he’ll be able to continue at a torrid pace. Now it’s just up to those guys hitting behind him to keep driving him home.

Stolen Bases

Orlando Arcia, SS MIL – He doesn’t come with a strong batting average and his .318 OBP is barely cutting it, but with five stolen bases already in the second half and playing every day for a surging Brewers team making a major playoff push, you have to give him a look if you need to add steals. Sometimes you have to suck it up and deal with a one-trick pony in order to boost yourself in a category like this, so leaving Arcia to your waiver wire is doing nothing but wasting an opportunity.

Starling Marte, OF PIT – Well if you were going to screw me with a PEDs suspension in the first half of the year, you’re darn right you’re going to help me out in stolen bases in the second half. Marte has five through his first 13 games and should hopefully deliver in the category the rest of the way. He just needs to find more of a groove and cut back on the whiffs. Consider him one of those one-trick ponies for right now, but we obviously know he’s got a higher ceiling than the rest of them.

Bradley Zimmer, OF CLE – While he’s not your traditional burner, Zimmer has shown throughout his time in the minors that he is more than capable of swiping 30 bags in a full season. We know he’s not breaching that plateau anytime this season, but with four steals in the second half and 13 on the season, he certainly needs to be on someone’s roster if steals are in need. He’ll offer up some decent pop as well, so if you get him just for the potential of another 10-12 swipes over the next two months, everything else is gravy.