Ray’s Ramblings: Hitters, Mostly Up

Dee Gordon is set to return from his suspension for PED use on July 28^th. However, a slight hiccup. Gordon suffered what is being called a hamstring cramp and had to be pulled from his minor league game Tuesday night. "He'll be out to take some grounders [Wednesday] and hopefully will be ready to go then,” manager Arnie Beyeler said. “He's been working out in Jupiter [Fla.], but you can't simulate the intensity of games. It's a little different animal in a live game, but we'll test it out tomorrow, and if it's not good we'll give him a day or two." Let’s assume he is fine. Let’s move to the question of usage. Gordon earned a Gold Glove last season while batting .333 with 58 steals and 205 hits, just to jog your memory. No matter how good Derek Dietrich has done I have to think Gordon plays every day. Have to. DD is the one who will have to be moved around to find playing time, not Gordon. Not that I expect Gordon to hit like he did last year mind you. For more, check out the report I laid out when the PED suspension news broke.

Jason Heyward is batting .228 with a .293 SLG and no homers his last 25 games. Boy does he stink. It’s fair to ask at this point – is it ever going to happen with Heyward?

Francisco Lindor has scored 12 times his last 10 games while batting .333 with a .391 OBP. He’s one hell of a hitter, better than I thought he would be at this point of his development for sure.

Joe Mauer has a .348 OBP the last 21 games, low for him, but his teammates are helping him out a ton as he’s scored 17 times in 21 games.

Nomar Mazara last hit a homer on the 19^th of June. That’s 25-straight games without a big fly. #ToldYa

As of this writing, Tyler Naquin is 2-for-2 Wednesday with his 11^th homer of the season and three RBI for the Indians. The 25 year old lefty swinger has been the ballz with a .322 average, .382 OBP and sterling .621 SLG. That effort leads him to a .419 wOBA. Wow. If he had enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title he would rank third in baseball in wOBA. Read that again. That’s fantastic work. In five seasons in the minors Naquin owns a .287/.359/.417 slash line. He can get on base, but he’s simply not the hitter we’ve seen thus far. He also has nowhere near this level of power. In 339 games in the minors, covering 1,366 at-bats, he’s hit 22 homers. He’s currently on a full season pace for more than 35 with the Indians. A .421 BBABIP and HR/F ratio of 28 percent, unsustainable numbers for every player who has ever lived, have driven this run. Ride the wave, but the final two months could get ugly.

Forty-seven years ago today Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.

The last 30 days no qualifying hitter in baseball has a worse K-rate that Derek Norris who has a mark of 39.4 percent (28 strikeouts in 71 plate appearances, 63 at-bats). Oddly, despite all the strikeouts and a pathetic .190 batting average, he’s hit four homers, stolen four bases, driven in 13 and scored 13 times in just 19 games the last month. Yeah, makes little sense, but when he puts the bat on the ball he’s causing massive amounts of damage. He’ll likely be dealt by the Padres opening up playing time for Austin Hedges. If you own Norris, you will have to hope the team that acquires Norris plans to play him daily and not platoon him.

Albert Pujols hit two, 3-run homers Tuesday night as the blasts just keep on coming. That effort was his second in three games with two homers, and over his last three outings he’s driven in 11 runs. All of a sudden he’s on pace for 33 homers and 120 RBI. He’s only hitting .252, but he can still pound the ball with the best of them. Even after being hit in the head last night, he’s still a monster and should be good to go moving forward.

Has anyone noticed that J.T. Realmuto is batting .316 with 10 steals? Those are elite numbers for a catcher. He’s been even better of late, crazy good, his last 19 games. Not only has he hit .346 in that time but he has a .400 OBP. Even so, the most impressive number in that time is seven… his steals total. Seven. That’s more steals the last 30 days than Melvin Upton, Adam Eaton and Jacoby Ellsbury who have all stolen five bags in that time.

The Mariners have once again recalled Mike Zunino. According to Greg Johns, it sounds like Zunino will stick around this time and split work behind the dish with Chris Iannetta. "He’s going to get a chance to play a little bit," manager Scott Servais said. "We’ve seen him do a little better job of controlling the strike zone," Servais said. "I think he’s handling situational hitting a little bit better. I think some of the pressure has been taken off." Zunino can’t hit anything, or hasn’t, at the big league level unless it was a fastball. If he keeps hitting like he was in the minors (.286-17-57 in 79 games at Triple-A) maybe he can carve out a more substantial role, but the truth is both Iannetta and Zunino are rough. Here are their career numbers.

At least Iannetta can get on base, that is until he posted an OBP mark of .293 last year and .305 this season. Hence the promotion of Zunino.
 

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).