10 Performances You Haven’t Noticed: Vol. 2

At this point in the year, full season lines are heavily influenced by how a player started. That first month-to-6 weeks can hold a player down or prop them up for quite a while. Here are 10 players who have surged or fallen from their early season work. And yes, I grant that some of y’all have probably noticed a few of these and if that’s the case, just exclude yourself from the headline and roast the dweebs who aren’t as cool as us.

Yes… that’s right. As cool as us.

I ran Volume 1 of this column a couple weeks ago.

HITTING

Avisaíl García has been a Top 20 OF on the year. You may recall that The BAT loved Garcia initially, but then had to drop his projection when the Brewers brought on Jackie Bradley Jr. since it was setting up to cut Garcia’s playing time with Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich being guaranteed two spots. JBJ has been a complete non-factor and both Cain and Yelich have missed time clearing the path for a full-time role for Garcia which he has taken full advantage of with a .270/.341/.493 line, 24 HR, 76 RBI, 59 R, and 7 SB in 449 PA. Only 17 qualified outfielders have topped his 120 wRC+.

Ryan Mountcastle had some buzz this spring as a potential breakout, but he was on many waiver wires by the end of May thanks to a .226/.255/.373 line with 5 HR in 188 PA. He has completely turned his season around, though. Since June 1st, he has been one of the hottest hitters in the league thanks to a .300/.358/.600 line with 20 HR (tied for 6th-most). He has a great shot at 30 HR this year and the 24-year-old joins Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander, and Trey Mancini atop the Orioles lineup as they start to put something together for the future.

Ty France was hitting just .229/.333/.366 when he went on the IL with a wrist injury back in mid-May. He returned after a minimum stay and has been on fire hitting .317/.370/.492 with 13 HR, 46 RBI, and 47 R in 365 PA. That’s a full season pace of 25 HR-88 RBI-90 R. These kinds of performances can be hidden in the fantasy world because he lacks a flashy standout skill, but he is a Top 70 hitter. His .292 season AVG is actually 19th in the league so that would be his standout skill, though I think this profile type is consistently overlooked as premium. France has been especially strong since the break with a 159 wRC+ that sits 15th in the league among 156 qualified hitters.

Speaking of AVG-driven standout profiles, Josh Harrison has been a fantastic Swiss Army Knife for fantasy managers this year with his .289 AVG (23rd in MLB) and triple eligibility (2B/3B/OF). He has 8 HR/8 SB, too, and players like this are deep league gold! The craziest thing here might be that his 8 SBs give him a Top 80 total for the year. We are all aware that SBs are rare, but stats like this crystallize dearth for me.

The value of speed can be further highlighted by the fact that Myles Straw is a Top 40 OF this year thanks to his 22 SBs. He is hitting .265/.339/.347 with 4 HR, too, but obviously the speed is completely driving his value.

PITCHING

Andrew Kittredge was an All-Star this year so you are likely aware that he has been good, but did you know that he has been the 5th-most valuable reliever? His 1.32 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, and 67 Ks in 61.3 innings have been excellent while the 8 Ws and 4 SVs have pushed him up the board ahead of every except four premium closers: Liam Hendriks, Raisel Iglesias, Josh Hader, and Ryan Pressly. Virtually nobody had Kittredge from jump street, but even if you only signed on in mid-May after he logged 4 Ws and 2 SVs, you’ve still gotten 41.7 IP of a 1.30 ERA and 0.91 WHIP with 51 Ks, 4 Ws, and 2 SVs. His 20 relief appearances are 8th-most in the league and he is one of just three to post a sub-1.00 ERA in those outings (Garrett Whitlock 0.67 in 27 totaling 54 IP, Jonathan Loaisiga 0.45 in 23 totaling 39.7 IP).

Sandy Alcantara is finding his strikeout groove in the second half. After just a 21% mark through his first 19 starts, he is up at a 28% clip since the break including three double-digit performances in August. In fact, aside from the meltdown in Coors (3.7 IP/10 ER), he has at least 7 innings and 7 strikeouts in each of his other five starts for the month. The 25-year-old flamethrower is incorporating whiffs with his already great groundball rate giving him superstar potential.

Logan Webb is on the verge of passing teammate Anthony DeSclafani and becoming a Top 25 SP on the year despite a 30-inning deficit. A new sinker has been instrumental to his success (read more about it here) as he has enjoyed across the board improvements. A three-point jump in swinging strike rate has fueled a career-best 26% K rate and that sinker has made him even more of a groundball beast at 61%, powering his 2.65 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in 105.3 IP. He will annoyingly be on a bunch of “sleeper” lists this winter to the point where he is anything but by draft season meaning he could be the top “Wide Awake Sleeper” for 2022.

Is Cal Quantrill the next big Cleveland starter? It was looking like it would be Triston McKenzie, but he was unfortunately sidelined with shoulder fatigue recently so now Quantrill is garnering attention for his brilliant August. The one-time Top 50 prospect started the season in the bullpen and remained there until they started stretching him out in late-May. He was fully entrenched as a starter by mid-June and has really hit another gear since the break with a 1.47 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in 55 IP. He has a 24% K rate and 8% BB rate in that time. Quantrill has gone 6+ innings in eight of his last 10 and the strikeout rate has surged to 27% in his six August starts.

The Brewers are becoming a reliever factory. In addition to their dynamic 1-2 punch of Josh Hader and Devin Williams, we have seen the rebirth of Brad Boxberger and emergence of Jake Cousins. Boxberger has a 41 SV season under his belt (2015) and even saved 32 games with Arizona back in 2018 but he fell off the radar after that. In 2019-20, he had a 4.43 ERA/1.50 WHIP in 44.7 IP thanks to walk (12%) and home run (1.2 per 9) issues. He has greatly improved both with Milwaukee (10% BB, 0.8 HR) en route to a 2.25 ERA/1.02 WHIP in 56 IP.

Cousins was plucked from the Independent League ranks and has been a nice swing-and-miss reliever for the Brewers since joining the team in late-June. He has a 38% K rate and .139 AVG against in 22 IP resulting in a 0.82 ERA and 0.91 WHIP. The 26-year-old righty needs to cut his 12% BB rate to become a true late-inning option, but he will likely be part of their October plans at this point.