Let’s keep on trucking along the new everyday player route. Today’s edition is another one team only version. Welcome to the Mariners’ new regular faces!

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With the trade deadline now in the rearview mirror, all the wheelin’ and dealin’ has created a domino effect on the teams involved. It’s not just the players involved in the trades, but also potentially multiple players on these teams that weren’t traded. Some players are now seeing new opportunities with playing time opened up. So let’s revisit the new everyday players series and return to our rundown of hitters who have become regulars recently.

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American League

Angels

• C.J. Cron started four straight at 1B while hitting third (all against righties).

• Randal Grichuk also started four straight since the trade while batting from 5th to 7th. Read the rest of this entry »

I ranked all trade deadline-affected batters (Paul is doing the pitchers) by how much their 2023 redraft league fantasy value increased or decreased (NOT OVERALL VALUE). The list includes every traded hitter (back to July 21st) and those guys who saw changes in value but stayed with their team.

Value Up

Jeimer Candelario (WSN->CHC): Team and park upgrade along with him playing first base.

Jeimer Candelario will play 1b on a regular basis with the Cubs, per David Ross.

— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) August 1, 2023

Carlos Santana (PIT->MIL): Milwaukee’s first base job is his. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s flip back to the rookie hitters and discuss another four recent recalls.

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American League

Angels

• Zach Neto has led off for six straight games.

• Mike Moustakas has started in nine of the last 10 games.

• Trey Cabbage has started in three of the last four games, all against a righty.

• Twenty-seven-year-old Michael Stefanic (.349/.445/.441, 2 HR, 6 SB) has started the last two games at second base. Read the rest of this entry »

Hitting in a 3-2 count in the major leagues must be very difficult. Think about it. Try to remove everything besides the count. Don’t worry about the runners, or lack thereof, on base. Try not to think of how many outs there are or what inning it is in or even how many runs are on the score-board. Instead, think of just the hitter and what they are trying to do, get on base.

Every hitter likely has an approach in a 3-2 count and that approach is also likely to be molded to their skill set. Really good at reading the ball out of the pitcher’s hand? Take a close 3-2 pitch and end up standing on first base. More of a “swing for the fences” type of hitter? Get that front foot down and swing away!

Here’s a look at those two approaches and how different hitters perform in 3-2 counts:

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We still have a number of teams remaining with new everyday players to discuss, so let’s continue on!

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Let’s pick back up with the new starters as games resume after the All-Star break. Consider this a Pirates edition, as three of the four names play their home games at the convergence of three rivers.

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Yesterday, I asked you to vote on which group of pitchers you expect to post a better ERA over the rest of the season. One group was composed of the 10 biggest SIERA overperformers, while the other comprised the underperformers. Now let’s poll you on hitters. I’ll follow the same concept and compare two groups of hitters based on xwOBA overperformance and underperformance. We know that xwOBA isn’t perfect. Neither is SIERA. In fact, no estimated/expected/forecasted equation is going to be perfect, because there will always be players that do something we have a difficult time quantifying. Furthermore, there will always be players each year that fall into either end of the extremes for no other reason than complete randomness. So let’s keep that in mind when reviewing these two groups.

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