With a number of new faces showing up in the starting lineup each day over the last couple of weeks, let’s get back to discussing these new everyday starters. We’ll break it up by AL and NL this time. We’ll start with the AL.
After spending the first two days of the week reviewing the last 30 day HardHit% gainers, let’s finish by shifting our attention to the other end of the list — the decliners. Yesterday, I discussed the AL guys, so today we’ll flip to the NAL guys and discuss those who have lost the most HardHit% compared to earlier in the season.
After spending the last two days reviewing the last 30 day HardHit% gainers, let’s now shift our attention to the other end of the list — the decliners. We’ll start with the AL guys and discuss those who have lost the most HardHit% compared to earlier in the season.
Yesterday, I reviewed and discussed the hitters who had posted the largest HardHit% gains over the last 30 days. In inadvertently filtered for AL batters only, so today, I’ll flip on over to the NL hitters. Remember this HardHit% includes all batted ball types, so an increase shouldn’t necessarily drive a higher HR/FB rate.
Hitters go through slumps and hot streaks as a normal part of the season. These types of trends are magnified at the beginning of the year, but can easily get overlooked in the middle as a couple of weeks of good or poor performance don’t dramatically change the player’s full season results. It’s difficult to determine whether a hitter on a hot streak has made a legitimate change that has taken his skill level higher or is simply experiencing the standard ebbs and flows of a season. Let’s review the hitters who have posted the largest gains in HardHit% over the last 30 days. We can’t be sure if this is a new skill level, but it could be a sign of just that.
Over the last week, I’ve discussed a number of hitters who have recently earned regular playing time. Now let’s shift our focus over to starting pitchers. Let’s dive into four starters who have just recently made their first MLB starts.
Everywhere you look, there’s a new starter. So let’s keep it going until I run out of names to discuss.
The lists of new regular faces never ends! Since I had two more player requests in the comments of yesterday’s post, let’s continue on discussing those who have just recently earned everyday playing time, whether because of a trade deadline deal, injury, or whatever else.
The trade deadline has now passed and not surprisingly, there was a ton of movement and new opportunities for players to take on full-time roles have arisen. All but one of these players now finding themselves with regular playing time is a result of deadline deals, with the the other being the beneficiary of an injury to the incumbent.
Man, waiting for the excitement of trade deadline day is hard. Why must teams wait until the last minute to complete a trade?! So to finish off my week of posting, let’s once again discuss another group of new everyday starters. Once the trade deadline passes, we will likely have a ton more worthy of discussion.
