Similar to yesterday’s exercise where I compared starting pitcher Stuff+ grades in June to earlier in the season, let’s flip over to hitters and review average bat speed. I have no idea how stable it is during the season, so I was curious if I would even find meaningful bat speed gains and declines this month versus in the period ending in May. Sure enough, I did! So let’s review the most dramatic average bat speed gainers and decliners in June compared to the previous months of the season.

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Now that almost 50% of the season is in the books, it’s a good time to check in on baseball’s top hitting prospects from a projections-based perspective. You can see the preseason list here and last year’s midseason list here. Those articles also feature more methodological detail if you want to read more about the projections process. Briefly, the projections capture prospect performance across the (non-DSL) minor and major leagues in recent years, making use of aging curves, major league equivalencies, league environment adjustments, park factors, regression, and more, to project peak (late-20s) prospect performance in the majors. They do not capture scouting, defense, or amateur performance. Starting this offseason, they also capture bat speed, which was made available for a decent handful of prospects this spring training.

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American League

Angels

• With Jorge Soler banged up (back), there has been some player movement. It doesn’t matter because the guys buried at the end of the lineup aren’t good and aren’t regulars. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• The second base circle jerk could be over with the promotion of Christian Moore. I’m guessing third base will continue to be a revolving cast of characters. Read the rest of this entry »

There are all kinds of reasons big leaguers get demoted to the minor leagues: roster crunches, injury rehab, and, of course, poor performance. Even for a weekly internet blogging fantasy baseball player, all these transactions are difficult to follow. Yet, many expert fantasy players follow them like a hawk follows a mouse running in an open field, and it gives them an edge. If there were a tool that could detect demotions, great performance during the demotion, and improved performance at the major league-level, we’d all have more time to do what we really care about: watch more baseball!

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Here are the latest significant changes in projected position player playing time, highlighted by Kyle Teel getting the call to the majors.

Yesterday, I discussed 20 disappointing hitters when comparing projected to actual dollar value earned, and tried to determine who was worth targeting in trade or patiently holding. Let’s now flip over to the players that have vaulted many teams to the top of the standings. These are the league winners so far, so the question now becomes — will they remain league-winning contributors or regress closer toward their preseason projections? Let’s find out.

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I’m one of those who screams small sample for weeks on end after the season begins, but even I start to lose patience after one of my hitters goes 0-for-4 yet again. As we hit around the 40% mark of the season, it’ll likely be much easier to buy slow starters at a discount to their draft day cost. But do you want to? Let’s review a slew of underperformers so far and try to figure out who is most worth targeting in trade or holding tightly if you have the misfortune of owning any.

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American League

Angels

• Second and third base aren’t set with Kevin Newman (.451 OPS), Chris Taylor (.325 OPS), Luis Rengifo (.507), and Scott Kingery (.472) splitting time over the last three games. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are the latest changes in projected position player playing time since last Tuesday, led by some Tigers outfielders finally getting healthy and, of course, the debut of Jac Caglianone.