Here’s a link to the Friday Pitcher Review.

Jose Altuve hit .341 in the first half and .333 in the second half. The last two seasons he leads baseball with a .326 average, one points ahead of Miguel Cabrera, two points ahead of DJ LeMahieu and six points ahead of Joey Votto.

Jose Bautista posted a .366 OBP, .132 points above his .234 batting average. Bryce Harper had a split of .130 points (.243 and .373). Harper was a massive disappointment in the fantasy space despite a 20/20 season with 86 RBI and 84 runs scored, that’s how high the expectations were with Harper. There were nine men who went 20/20 by the way. No one went 30/30 though Mike Trout (29/30) and Wil Myers (28/28) were really close. Of those nine men how many went 24/21 with 86 RBI and 84 runs scored? Harper was one of six men to do that. Of that group of six men the lowest OPS belonged to Wil Myers at .797. The only other guy under .897 was Harper at .814.

Chris Davis lead the league with 219 strikeouts. Chris Carter was second with 206. They posted OBP’s of .332 and .321. Think of that, those two fellas gave away more than 200 at-bats and still posted better OBP mark than Mark Trumbo (.316). Oh yeah, he struck out 170 times.

Ian Desmond went 20/20 for the fourth time in five seasons. His .285 batting average was a four year high and the second best mark of his career. He hit .237 in the second half.

Brian Dozier hit 28 homers in the second half (72 games). That means Dozier had more homers in the second half than the following guys had all year: Giancarlo Stanton 27, Jose Abreu 25, Miguel Sano 25, Carlos Gonzalez 25 and Bryce Harper 24.

120: The number of runs scored by four men – Mike Trout 123, Josh Donaldson 122, Mookie Betts 122 and Kris Bryant 121. Donaldson has scored exactly 122 runs the last two seasons.

Dexter Fowler was limited to 125 games this season due to injury, but he posted a career best .393 OBP and the second best OPS of his career at .840. He’s scored 186 runs since the start of last season, just two less than teammate Anthony Rizzo. Only 20 men have scored more than Fowler in that time.

DJ LeMahieu posted a .911 OPS this season. His previous career best mark was .746. Wow is right. The .911 mark was better than Paul Goldschmidt (.899). Goldschmidt walked 110 times on his way to a .411 OBP. Josh Donaldson was nearly identical with 109 walks and a .404 on base mark. They were two of the seven men in baseball with an OBP of .400 or more.

J.D. Martinez led baseball with a .826 batting average on line drives. He hit 69 of them. Joey Votto led baseball with a .392 batting average on fly balls (125 of them). Starling Marte led the league with a .455 batting average on pulled baseballs. Actually, Freddie Freeman also posted a .455 mark. Brian Dozier led all players with 36 pulled homers. The best opposite field hitter in baseball was likely Christian Yelich who posted a 1.307 OPS in that situation, slightly ahead of Michael Saunders (1.304). Nolan Arenado led baseball with a 1.214 OPS with men in scoring position, just ahead of the 1.204 mark of Joey Votto. Curtis Granderson was last in baseball with a mark of .477.

Yadier Molina led catchers with a .307 batting average. He hit .365 his last 65 games. That was the second best mark in baseball for all players behind only Joey Votto at .408. Danny Espinosa was the worst in the second half with a .172 mark. The other fella under .200 was Jake Lamb at .197.

David Ortiz led baseball with 48 doubles. He led baseball with a .620 SLG. He was also the only player in baseball with an OPS over .991 at 1.021.

Jonathan Schoop had an impressive season with 25 homers, 82 RBI and 82 runs scored. He also posted an absolutely pathetic .292 OBP as he walked just 21 times in 162 games of action. That’s embarrassing. The lack of patience ultimately doomed him as he fell from hitting .304 in the first half to just .225 in the second half. My goodness… his OBP over his last 75 games was .252. The only man who was worse was Salvador Perez at .248. By the way, Rougned Odor was even worse than Schoop as he walked 19 times in 632 plate appearances leading to a similarly ghastly .296 OBP. Marcell Ozuna wasn’t really any better with a .267 OBP over his last 63 games. He also hit only six homers in the second half crushing his hot start completely. He posted a .266-23-76-75 line with a .773 OPS over 608 plate appearances. That’s exactly the same level as he posted did back in 2014: .269-23-85-72 with a .772 OPS. Rather remarkable in the similarities actually. He had just 494 plate appearances in 2015 in a lost season.

Three men hit 11 triples to lead baseball: Brandon Crawford, Chris Owings and Cesar Hernandez. The only player of that group to hit more homers than triples was Brandon Crawford, 12 to 11. Speaking of Owings, he was the leader in baseball in terms of steals while being caught two or fewer times as he was successful on 21-of-23 attempts. The only other man with 20 steals who was caught three or fewer times was Kevin Kiermaier (21-for-24). Jonathan Villar led the league with 62 steals. He also led the league with 18 caught stealing. Back to Hernandez. He was second in baseball with 13 caught stealing while being successful only 17 times.

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).