There are plenty of disappointments this season on the diamond. All one has to do is to look at the DL list to be slapped in the face with name after name of failures: Prince Fielder, Kris Medlen, Patrick Corbin, Matt Wieters & Carlos Gonzalez to name just a few (the list is massive). But what about the healthy players, or at least the ones that are on the field right now that simply can't seem to get any traction? Do you hold on to these guys or let them go? Ultimately the decision has to be made after taking into consideration the roster makeup of your club, but I'll still give my thoughts on whether or not continued patience is worthwhile for a group of struggling batters.

YES = Target to hold or add in a deal
NO = Let him be someone else's problem

Billy Butler has hit .289 or better each of the past five years. He's currently batting .268. Why? His BABIP is only down .010 points. However, given that his current line drive rate of 23.5 percent would be the second best mark of his career and it's well above his 19.8 percent career mark, one could suggest that a few more hits are extremely likely to fall as we move forward (they already have as he's hit .295 over his last 29 games). The power has been MIA too. Not a homer hitter, he's really a 15-20 guy (hes hit at least 15 each of the past five years), it's still wildly disappointing to see two homers next to his name. The most obvious issue, and you will hear this with his teammate below, is that Butler isn't lifting the ball enough. Here are his fly ball rates the last three years and this season: 36, 29, 26 and 25 percent. If only one in four batted balls goes into the air you're simply not going to hit homers. At the same time Butler owns a 10.9 percent career HR/F ratio. That mark is currently less than a third of that at 3.1. He's not exploding in the homer column the ROTW, but 8-10 big flies are possible.
YES.

Aaron Hill is a confounding player to own. One year he produces average. The next power. Another he'll steal some bases. He's usually productive, but lacks consistency. Take a look at his last 168 games played: .270-17-83-69-2. Who wouldn't take something like that from their second baseman? However, Hill has two steals and five caught stealing the past two seasons. He's not giving anything there. Though he's hit .270 since the start of last season he's only batting .248 this year. His contact rate is the same as always, ditto his swinging strike rate, so it's certainly plausible that his batting average will improve. It's also plausible to think his homer pace could pick up a bit. His 5.6 HR/F ratio is below his 8.4 percent career mark but it is in the reasonable range given his skills so it's no lock to shoot up. Overall Hill is just a guy at second base in mixed leagues.
NO.

Eric Hosmer is even more disappointing than Butler. The guy rebounded from a poor second season to hit .302 with 17 homers, 79 RBIs and 86 runs scored last season. He also offered a third straight year of at least 11 thefts bringing a speed element infrequently seen from corner infielders. He could still get to that level but he will really have to pick it up given that he's only swiped three bases. That's just one of his issues. Look at his slash line: .256/.302/.352. That's not even league average. Repeat, not even league average. His walk rate has regressed while his K-rate has increased (his 0.38 BB/K ratio is well below the 0.55 mark he had the last two seasons). Not good. It's also an issue that a guy with a 19 percent career line drive rate is sitting at 14.6 percent. Have to think that number rises as the games pile  up. At the same time the guy hits everything into the ground. His current ground ball rate of 53.7 percent would be the worst of his career, though given a 52.3 percent rate for his career it's hardly a shock. That's Rajai Davis stuff, not a run producing corner infielder. Hosmer has posted an 11 percent or higher HR/F ratio his first three seasons so it's impossible to believe he won't improve on his current 4.4 percent mark. Still, there's nothing to see here. This is a decent skill set for a second baseman. It blows chunks for a first baseman.
NO.

Austin Jackson has been blahtastic. The la three season he's averaged 13 homers and 14 steals. This year he's on pace for six and 15. He's got 23 RBIs. That's awful. At same time he failed to reach 50 in three of his first four seasons. The real issue with AJax revolves around runs and batting average. From 2010-13 Austin scored at least 90 runs each season. The only other player in baseball to accomplish that was Miguel Cabrera. Obviously terrible disappointment hounds Jackson since he's on pace for 70 runs scored this season. Why has he stopped scoring runs? After spending the majority of his first four seasons at the top of the order he's hit first or second only 10 times this season. The Tigers chose to move him down in the order and it's killed his run scoring pace. As for the average, I'm expecting an improvement. His line drive rate is 23.4 percent, just two tenths off his norm. However, his BABIP is .056 points below his normal of .354. He's yet to finish a season under .333. He needs to stop trying to lift ball – his 43 percent fly ball rate is a full 10 percent above his normal – and if he does he could very easily have a solid second half, even though his overall numbers will disappoint.
YES.

Jean Segura has been bad for a long while now. Since July 15th of last season he's hit .240 with a .270 OBP and .321 SLG. Those are pathetic numbers. Embarrassing for a player of his skills actually. Segura has also hit only five homers with 35 RBIs and 61 runs scored over 559 plate appearances in that time. Even his steals effort has been poor. The raw total of 31 steals is nice, but 16 caught stealing give him a success rate of 66 percent. That means his running has hurt the Brewers more than it has helped (see: Stolen Base Runs). There really nothing to like here. He never walks. That hurts his runs scored outlook. He's getting thrown out more than a third of the time he runs. When he's not getting on base enough to offset that weakness there's little upside in the steals column. When you don't walk you aren't likely to be a big time average booster. The guy has 11 walk in 81 games folks. I warn all the time about how this approach can lead to poor results. Finally, the guy has no homer power and he's driven in a total of 61 runs over his last 227 games. You can do better unless you are getting him dirt cheap.
NO.

Joey Votto and his wounded knee aren't doing too well. Through 212 at-bats he's hit .259 with six homer and 22 RBIs. No way around it – that's just awful. Will he ever get to 100 percent physically this season? If he doesn't it's going to be dang hard for him to be a useful fantasy performer (we've seen him battle through knee issues before, and while he hit for average he was unable to drive the ball). Votto's walk rate is intact, and the result is a still impressive .398 OBP. His K-rate, get this, is the lowest it's been since 2007. Moreover, he's walked than he's struck out (47 to 45). That doesn't do jack for you in traditional fantasy leagues, but it goes to show you that he's still effective. When his .301 BABIP rises, his career mark is .356 and he's never finished a year below .328, the batting average should improve as well. Will he drive the ball? Maybe not. Obviously you need to scale back your expectations but if he's available on the cheap he wouldn't be the worst addition in the world.
YES.


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