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.
We don’t need to wait for the trade deadline to pass to analyze a slew of players who have recently come into regular playing time. So let’s continue our dive into new everyday starters.
It’s been a while since running a series of New Everyday Starters posts and man, do we have a slew of them right now. Between injury replacements and minor league call-ups, it might be easier than ever to find a replacement for your injured starter. Let’s discuss five of those new regulars and determine if they have a place on your roster.
It seems like the Rays always have a logjam of hitters and rotations at most positions, and that has now gotten even more logjammy with their acquisition of DH Nelson Cruz. Cruz hasn’t played in the field since 2018, which means for as long as he is starting, the DH slot is going to be filled. That’s bad news for many of their hitters who will likely see a playing time cut, albeit not a significant one since it will likely be a different player on the bench each day. The logjam is likely to worsen again once Manuel Margot returns from the IL. Alas, this isn’t an article on the rest of the Rays hitters, it’s about Cruz’s move from Minnesota to Tampa. From a strictly ballpark change perspective, how might this switch in home venue affect his performance? Let’s consult the park factors.
