If you listened to this week’s fantasy baseball podcast, you would have already known the topic of this week’s Category Impact, like, two days ago! Batting average it is ladies and gents. It’s time to add some more hits to our team’s ledger and get farther and farther away from that measly .240 mark! Don’t ignore it, you’re there with me! There are a few players below who can help take us where we want to go this fantasy season! Yes, football is right around the corner, but you’ve worked too damn hard to not give the end of the fantasy baseball season the same attention you did a few months ago. Sure, read my fantasy football content, but continue to do your due diligence for baseball as well!

Without further ado…

Jake Cave, OF MIN – Despite having nearly as many strikeouts as he does hits over the last week, Cave is scorching hot, hitting a sizzling .429 for the Minnesota Twins. We saw Cave go on a power binge last season, but in his recent string of success, it’s due to hitting for average. While the strikeout rate has remained similar, he’s walking a bit more, and a large increase in his BABIP could be helping, especially of late. However, it’s not all luck, considering he's making hard contact nearly three-fourths of the time during the month of August! That is absolutely profound! It’s also worth noting, per Fangraphs, that he’s hitting fewer grounders during the month of August, trading them in for line drives. Getting involved in the Minnesota offense is a solid choice, and Cave is a quality selection from this lineup, especially given his recent string of success.

Mike Yastrzemski , OF SF – Unlike the other guys on this list, Yastrzemski has, and will continue to help in other categories besides batting average. He’s hitting .282 on the year, but his 17 home runs in just 259 at-bats surely play as well. The strikeouts are a bit of a problem, but he’s hit safely in five of his last six games, including three multi-hit efforts and a three-homer game back on August 16 against the Diamondbacks. Personally, what I like to see the most, is that even though the hard contact rate has stayed relatively similar from last month, the barrel rate is through the roof!

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He’s clearly seeing the ball well, and even though his home park isn’t super friendly, he’s making the most of it, and he should be able to end the year on a hot streak as well. It’s hard to ignore him any longer in even the shallowest of leagues, let alone anything past a 12-teamer!

Luis Arraez, 2B MIN – The second Minnesota Twin to make the list is courtesy of my podcasting cohort Greg Jewett (@gjewett9) as he showcased some interesting numbers regarding Arraez. Shameless plug alert here, but if you haven’t listened to this week’s podcast yet, what are you waiting for!? We are only 22 days into August and Mr. Arraez has a whopping SEVEN multi-hit contests! He’s hitting .310 for the month of August and he entered the month hitting a superb .348. He’s only hitting .341, darn, shame on him! He’s scorching hot right now and he would be a huge boost to most fantasy teams looking for some positives in the batting average department. The name isn’t the flashiest, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a hotter hitter in free agency at this point of the season.

J.P. Crawford , SS SEA – Crawford may only be hitting .250 at the big league level this season, but the former first-round pick is coming around of late. Not only is he hitting .333 over his past seven games, but his 4:5 K/BB ratio indicates that he’s seeing the ball well right now and has an understanding of the strike zone. He has two multi-hit efforts in his last three games, and a good schedule moving forward. After facing the Blue Jays and Yankees, he gets to go to Texas’ hitter-friendly stadium and then heads to Wrigley. He’s going to continue to play the rest of the way and while he’s had his fair share of struggles at the big league level to date, the shortstop is just 24 years young! Lastly, it’s encouraging to see that his average exit velocity got back to where it was earlier in the season, albeit still below average.

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