CORNER INFIELD PERFORMANCE
Jose Abreu is back to crushing. Over his last 26 games he’s hit four homers, has driven in 17 runners and has hit .311 with a .515 SLG. Folks have worried too much about Abreu and his lack of production early in the year. Who has been more consistent than this guy the past few years at first base? Not many. Also realize, please, that the baseball season isn’t 20 games long. It isn’t 40 games long. It’s 162 games. We’re not even half way through the year yet folks.
Matt Carpenter has only two homers his last 21 games but that shouldn’t distract from his tremendous overall work in that time. Carpenter has scored 19 times win 21 games while batting a robust .385 with a .489 OBP and .654 SLG. He’s not a superstar but he continues to operate at a level that is very, very close. So good.
Maikel Franco is batting .202 with 11 RBI and eight runs scored his last 24 games. He’s woefully underperforming though he’s still on pace for 25 homers and 80 RBI which would be a pretty good season for a guy in his first full campaign, wouldn’t it? The only way it wouldn’t is if you were hoping/expecting Franco to go .285-30-100 this season. You shouldn’t have been.
I mean, who would do this? Seriously.
Todd Frazier has seven homers his last 25 games. That’s great. He’s also hit .122 in that time. Yikes. He’s struck out a remarkable 36 times in those 25 games which is atrocious. Amazingly, Nick Castellanos is matching that pace with 36 punchouts of his own. He’s hit .245 the last month though, double the mark of Frazier. Unfortunately, Castellanos has hit .245 the last month with nine RBI in 27 games. He’s slowed tremendously after his amazing start.
Freddie Freeman is back to being… Freddie Freeman. Over the last 30 days he has hit .280 with a .358 OBP and .495 SLG. His career numbers are .284/.366/.467.
Marwin Gonzalez isn’t a great player, but he’s very versatile and he’s been quite effective the last month. Marwin is batting .299 with a .365 OBP his last 27 games as he’s even chipped in four thefts. He’s a great final player on a bench in mixed leagues.
Chase Headley has hit .303 the last month. Really, he has. He only has two homers and nine RBI so it’s been an awful lot like Martin Prado action here. Better than nothing, but at least it’s something for a guy who was an abomination to start the season.
Tommy Joseph has stopped hitting his last 10 games. He has one homer and two RBI in that time which is epic production given the fact that he’s produced three hits, three, leading to a .075 batting average and .273 OPS. You really can’t be any worse than that, can you? He’s still only taken three walks in 32 games, and his insanely high fly ball ratio of 52.4 percent, in conjunction with the lack of free passes, will conspire to keep his batting average down. He’s currently batting .229 and I’m not overly surprised. I warned this could happen back in June 7th. “Joseph just isn’t a very good hitter, he doesn’t have great power, and he never walks or steals a base.”
Don’t try to run away from a bear.
Jake Lamb has 22 RBI his last 27 games with a .284/.370/.614 slash line. When a righty is on the hill this season he stars (.300/.368/.589). When a lefty is out there he vanishes in copmarison (.178/.327/.400). Check the schedule as you decide how to deploy Lamb so you can get maximum return.
Evan Longoria is crushing it the last 30 days with 10 homers and 23 RBI over 26 games. He’s also hitting .300 with a .650 SLG. Don’t know why folks seem so reticent to count on Longoria each year.
Joe Mauer is batting .287 with a .365 OBP the last 30 days. He’s gone deep four times with 14 RBI and 19 runs scored in 30 games. If he can keep up that level of production his owners are going to be very happy.
Jose Ramirez has stolen six bases and scored 18 runs his last 26 games. A nice little player who is producing a bit over his head, but with his positional flexibility he’s been a wonderful addition to fantasy squads.
Trevor Bauer has been pitching extremely well for the Tribe. Adam Conley has been decent, but also very inconsistent. Nobody saw Junior Guerra’s recent success coming. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO.
Anthony Rendon continues to struggle to put it all together. He’s stolen two bags and has hit five big flies his last 26 games. That’s good. However, he’s hitting .247 with a .308 OBP in that time. That’s bad. Rendon is still on pace to go 16/16 with 95 runs scored even as he is on pace or a mere 58 RBI and .251 batting average. I think it’s insane that folks are looking to drop him, but he has to do better.
Travis Shaw has been bad in the month of June. Over his last 18 games he’s hit .207 with a .292 OBP and .259 SLG. He doesn’t have a single homer and has driven in only two runners in that time. He’s been dealing with a shin issue of late, but that’s only a couple of days and doesn’t explain this level of struggle. With the slowdown Shaw is on pace to go .275-16-84 this season. What did I suggest he would do this season in his Player Profile? “Shaw’s upside is likely 25 homers and 75 RBIs (think Brandon Moss or Mitch Moreland), with a league average mark in batting average.” We shall see.
Eugenio Suarez has five homers and 14 runs scored his last 26 games. He continues to help in the counting categories. However, he’s not hitting well overall, not remotely. Suarez has 33 strike outs his last 87 at-bats while batting a mere .218 in those 26 games. If we remove the first eight games he played this season Suarez has hit .206 with a .264 OBP and .381 SLG. That’s flat out terrible in all three categories. All three. He’s basically just a HR-RBI-Run guy. Nothing wrong with that given his dual-positional eligibility, but he’s murder in the other categories and quite frankly is hitting rather poorly.
Joey Votto has a .316/.425/.558 slash line his last 25 games. Elite yet again.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 7 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).