MLB Streaks & Trends: Kris Bryant on a Rockie Mountain High

It’s Saturday, so it’s time to grab your coffee, tea, or whatever your morning/early afternoon beverage of choice is and dive into some notable streaks and trends across Major League Baseball.  Just as we all expected, Luis Arraez and Yandy Díaz are within the top five at some various statistical categories, as these two duke it out for fantasy baseball waiver wire pickup of the year. Veterans Kris Bryant and Justin Turner have been raking of late, and Xander Bogaerts may be one of the more unlucky players in baseball here in the early parts of July. Could you potentially trade low for him? It’s worth inquiring! We’ll also take a look at some of the longest active hit streaks in baseball leading up to the 2022 MLB All Star Game. Be sure to check out our July rankings, fantasy baseball waiver wire article and stock watch videos for even more content to help boost your fantasy baseball teams. Let’s take a look at some of the notable hit streaks and current trends across Major League Baseball.

MLB Stat Leaders

MLB Hit Streaks

Who’s Hot

The Rockies have been waiting for Kris Bryant to return to the lineup, and man, has he been everything and more that they needed. He’s hitting .417 with three home runs, three doubles, and five RBI over his last six games, striking out just once in the process. Since returning from his injury near the end of June, he’s hitting .306 with a .343 wOBA, 107 wRC+ and a measly 5.3 percent strikeout rate. He missed over a month due to his injury, but he should be ready to put up his usual numbers the rest of the way, especially with a couple days off coming up in the next week or so.

If you thought Bryant was hot of late, look at the veteran Justin Turner out in Los Angeles. Over the last seven days, he’s hitting .480, and while he may not be doing much for fantasy baseball managers outside of this hot stretch, it’s incredibly value nonetheless, especially if you use Turner’s batting average to complement let’s say a Kyle Schwarber. The Philadelphia outfielder is only hitting .217 over the last seven days, but he has four home runs, so if you add Turner’s batting average into the fold, you have a fantasy stud. Turner’s expected batting average is rather high at the moment, and you can see in that category, he’s always been a bit streaky.

Turner may only really be providing batting average help at the moment, and he probably won’t hit more than 20 home runs this season, but if he can use this to pick up his batting average over the second half, the lack of power becomes salvageable, especially with an improved batting average.

We talked about it last week with Josh Bell, but the Royals have to be ecstatic that Andrew Benintendi is enjoying a little stretch of production right as the team needs him at his best to drive up his trade value. He’s a near-lock to get traded, and he’s having a great season in reality, hitting .318 with three home runs, 34 RBI and 34 runs scored. He’s hitting .423 over his last seven games, and .418 over his last 15 games, and outside of batting average, he’s been a far greater asset to the Royals in reality than us fantasy baseball folk. However, batting average is still something that matters, so we’ll enjoy this production, but we could see his fantasy value rise if he finds himself dealt to a team with either a better lineup for his counting stats, or a good hitters park to play his offensive game up a little bit.

Who’s Not

It was mentioned in our Discord, and it feels true, but someone asked if Jonathan India just lives with the “DTD” next to his name. It almost seems like it! He did get hit by pitch, so the day-to-day designation is likely deserving, but the constant in-and-out of the lineup makes it hard to establish any sort of a rhythm in a game that is so predicated on timing. Over the last seven days, India is just 4-for-23 with 11 strikeouts at the dish, good for a .174 average and .269 OBP. He’s been a more regular presence in the lineup of late, which is good, but a 42.3 percent strikeout rate, 19.5 percent swinging strike rate, and 58.5 percent contact rate aren’t doing anyone any favors. If fantasy baseball managers can get to the All-Star break, a couple of days off should do India well, and the hope will be that he’s a nice power-speed guy in the second half. Health willing, of course.
 

Stephen Piscotty loves to pop up at random times as this fantasy behemoth, as he can go on a power binge and hit for a decent average, but right now, fantasy baseball managers, even in the deepest of formats should be cutting ties with Piscotty. He’s hitting  just .194 on the year with a 32.9 percent strikeout rate, which is 11 percentage points higher than his career average!

It likely comes as no surprise then that his 18.1 percent swinging strike rate is rather high, and his 63.9 percent contact rate would easily be a career low. The worst part, too, is that it’s not just once type of pitch giving him fits, but each of the big three has killed him this year.

There’s plenty of time for him to turn things around, but fantasy baseball managers shouldn’t be awaiting the turnaround with Piscotty eating up a valuable roster spot.

Xander Bogaerts isn’t likely to be someone that you’d be taking out of your lineup, but it’s worth noting that he’s stuck in a 1-for-20 slump over the past seven calendar days. He’s not striking out a ton and the optimism is that despite hitting just .100 in the month of July, he’s xBA is up at .286, and that is the second-highest of any month this season for the star middle infielder.

An .053 BABIP won’t do you any favors, but when your StatCast metrics are right in line with where they have been all year, this cold front can be attributed to bad luck more than anything. If someone wants to trade Bogaerts because of this cold streak, you should be ecstatic to buy low at the moment.

Statistical Credits:

• baseballsavant.mlb.com
• fangraphs.com
• baseballmusings.com

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• Previous Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Targets
• 2022 MLB Fantasy Baseball Prospect Report
• 2022 MLB Injury Report
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