With the Fourth of July coming and going, fireworks, parties, parades, here we are. Smack dab in the middle of the baseball season. The All-Star game is around the corner and the dog days of summer are just about here. It’s time to make the moves that make or break your fantasy team. Here’s a look at the top and bottom performers this past week.

HOT Hitters

Trea Turner graces the list and a two homer, eight RBI game will do that. He’s hitting .419 this past week with one steal. I caught some flak for keeping Turner inside my top 10 (7th overall) in my June update, but he’s performed just fine to justify the ranking. His stolen base totals aren’t what we expected but he’s still on pace for about 20 homers and 40+ steal with a .280 batting average. His run total is a bit low but as the Nationals offense heats up, those numbers will get better. He’s not quite the 60 steal guy owners were hoping for, but he’s not hurting your team if you drafted him in the first round.

Avisail Garcia has come off the DL and been mashing. He’s hitting over .400 this week with 5 HR, 7 RBI, and 9 runs. If he’s available, pick him up and ride this out. Once he cools off you can sell him, he won’t keep this up. There are people out there who believe Garcia is a .330 hitter. I’m not one of them. He needed an unsustainable .380 BABIP in 2017 to pull that off. He’s a .280 hitter with awful plate discipline, low flyball rate and moderate power. He’s walked 1.5% of the time this year! He won’t hurt your team but some people have higher expectations than I do with him.

Aaron Judge has been showing his power/speed combination hitting 4 HR and stealing a couple bases. You don’t need me to tell you that Aaron Judge is great. He’s just about the exact same player as last year. He might not hit 50 HR but then again, he could get hot and hit 55! I think he’s a .280 hitter with 45-50 HR, 220 R + RBI and 10-12 steals! Yes please!!

Aaron Hicks has just about matched Judge’s production this week also hitting 5 homers and stealing a base. It’s too bad he can’t stay healthy and old ass Gardner is still on the roster. Here are Hicks’ numbers since the start of 2017 in 156 games .264/.365/.495 with 31 HR and 17 steals with 96 runs and 92 RBI! For context, that’s basically Jose Ramirez from 2017 without the average. Yup, Hicks is a top 50 player when healthy. BUY!

Max “Money” Muncy just keeps hitting. He’s got three home runs this week and nine runs while hitting .400. Unfortunately he’s only got three RBI as well, but his patience at the plate discipline is insane. I posted on Twitter yesterday that Muncy leads the league in wOBA since May 1st! Yes, that’s over Mike Trout. Early on I compared Muncy to Hoskins but he’s actually surpassed what Hoskins did in the 2nd half of 2017. He’s older and slower than Hoskins but probably has a slightly better batted ball profile and plate discipline. I’ll continue to rate them closely meaning Muncy is likely a .265-.270 hitter with 30-35 HR power over a full season.

It’s funny how Jedd Gyorko starts playing well when Paul DeJong was lurking after a lengthy DL stint. He’s hitting over .300 with 2 HR and 8 RBI this past week. For me, Gyorko is just kind of bleh. There’s no guarantee for every day at bats and his contact rates are down this year. When he hit 30 HR in 2016 at age 27, it came with an amazingly low 9 doubles, I think reaching 30 HR was a bit lucky. Best case for Gyrk-store is .250-25 HR with low end run production.







HOT Pitchers

Tyler Anderson everyone! Look! A Rockies pitcher who has performed well in two straight starts! He’s gone 16 IP with 17 strikeouts, no earned runs, and a WHIP of only 0.56. I’ve always liked Anderson but hate that he’s on the Rockies. The thing is, he’s basically the same guy he was last year except he’s giving up less homers and more fly balls. No that’s not good. His swinging strike rate is well above league average but his strikeout rate is basically league average. Something isn’t jiving, but it’s the same issue as last year. I think the fly balls and hard contact catch up with him and he ends up around a 4.25 ERA. He’s a sell if anyone is buying.

Chase Anderson (yes, another Anderson) has looked good for probably the second week all season. He’s given up two runs and only seven base runners in his last two starts. I was in favor of Anderson as a sleeper coming into the year believing in his velocity increase. However, he’s not getting as many swings and misses outside the zone and therefore, is giving up more contact. His zone percentage is down as well and the walk rate is up as a result. He can be left if waivers in 10 and 12 team leagues but can be spot started in deeper leagues.

Chris Sale continues his pursuit of back-back 300 K seasons as he stuck out 23 batters in his last two starts. Oh and by the way, he’s managed a 0.69 ERA in his last 13 IP. Nothing to see here, if you drafted Sale over Kershaw you deserve a pat in the back. Oh, but the rest of your staff sucks? I’m sorry to hear that. Anyways, Sale is like a machine just like Scherz-Bot & Klub-Bot. Sale-Bot? Sale-boat?

Andrew Suarez, brother of stud 3B Eugenio Suarez (kidding), of the S.F. Giants has strung together a couple nice starts with an ERA of 1.38 and a WHIP of 1.08. He’s only managed 11 strikeouts in the 13 innings but he does carry a 50+% groundball rate. Is there something here? Well, his 22.6% K rate paired with a 4.7% walk rate says yes. However, his hard contact against is nearly 42% and he gives up a lot of homers considering the high groundball rate. In addition, his SwStr% (7.6%) does not match a strikeout rate of over 20%. He’s a streamer in all leagues but 15+ and deeper leagues.

Lance MuCullers everyone! He’s compiled 2 wins, 19 strikeouts, and given up 1 ER in his last 14 IP. His peripherals are basically the same as last year but with more neutral luck. Essentially if you get 200 IP from LM, he’s a top 12 SP, but he rarely throws over 125 IP. He’s at 108 right now. I’d love to see him go over 180 but I’m a little skeptical. I love that his change up has yielded great results, so I’m confident that if health prevails, he’ll continue to be a stud. Quite the dilemma because owners may only have a handful more dominate starts before injury sets in… and then what?

Freezing Cold Hitters

I have to start with arguably the worst player in baseball this year, Chris Davis. No, not Khris Davis of the Athletics, he’s great! C-Davis is hitting .125 this past week without a home run or RBI. Here are hit home run totals the last four years: 47, 38, 26, 7 (this year) and on pace for 13. Davis is hitting .152 on the season and I don’t think they can keep him in the lineup much longer, especially with Austin Hayes wasting away in the Minors. They could slide Mancini over to 1B and give Hayes a shot. Back to Davis, yeah, his career may be over.

Odubel Herrera only has has two hits in the last seven days but one is a home run, yah! He’s hitting under .150 this week after coming off his second incredible hot streak of the season. I wrote about Herrera at TheSportsDegens a couple days ago. Unfortunately, he’s struggling now, so his sticker price may have dropped a bit. Then again, if the Phillies can put up 20 runs today, maybe he gets four hits and his poor week will be forgotten. SELL

Marcell Ozuna is four for his last 28 without a homer. The entire Cardinals outfield is a mess right now. I really thought Ozuna turned the corner about a month ago when he adjusted his leg kick. Now, I’m not so sure. I want to take a closer look at Ozuna around the All-Star break to see what’s up. Maybe it’s just Cardinal Devil Magic working in reverse. He’s swinging and missing a lot more the last week and a half but he’s hitting the ball as hard as ever. He’ll come out of this just like he did earlier this year. The problem is that he seems to be more like a .275-25 type player rather than the .315-38 hitter he was last year. I’m holding because you’d be selling too low and a hot streak is around the corner.

So, Carlos Gomez absolutely went off on the cooler in the dugout this past week. What did the cooler do to him? At least we now know that Gomez is capable of hitting something, am I right? Gomez has been worth -0.7 WAR this season and even his defense has been bad. He’s on a one-year deal so the Rays wanted to flip him, but I don’t think anyone is buying. Unfortunately, the Rays will play him until after the trade deadline. If he can’t be moved, he’s going to probably sit. Move along, he’s not ownable.

George Springer is in the midst of a massive slump and is hitting under .150 without a homer or a steal this week but it goes deeper than that. A .203 BABIP in June is part of the problem just as his .108 BABIP for the season on fly balls. Those should stabilize but I am concerned about his lack of power, only 4 homers since the start of June, and 25% hard contact thus far early in July. Monitor his hard/soft contact to see if an injury and possible DL stint is in play. I can’t say he’s a sell low, I think he will be fine.

Jesus Aguilar is only four for his last 23 without a home run this week. Ah, yes MLB pitching is adjusting to Jesus. His K rate is up a bit as a result. That has been the issue with him in the past. He does expand the zone and he’s now getting strikes thrown to him less than 40% of the time. He’s a good hitter and should provide a solid BABIP but he’s due for a small amount of regression there. As long as he continues to get playing time, he can be a .275 hitter with 32-35 home runs.

Freezing Cold Pitchers

Jeremy Hellickson did not fulfill my streaming expectations as he got completely rocked against the Marlins of all teams. He’s not given up 11 ER in his last two starts with a WHIP of 2.19. At best Hellickson was a streamer and he blew up in my face this past week. With his limited strikeout upside, he needs to be ignored even as a streaming option until future notice.

Tanner Roark (I’m not picking on the Nationals starters, I promise) has now had very poor outings in three of his last four outings. Roark is suppose to be a safe option, not a volatile one! What’s going on Roark? This is not 2016 Roark. He likely was never getting back to the numbers he had that season, but I thought he could be a 3.75 ERA type pitcher with a good number of wins. Unfortunately, he’s still giving up a lot of walks and is giving up more contact (less Ks). He’s also lost one mph of velocity on his fastball. I’m leaving Roark on the wire and maybe dropping him in deeper leagues.

I’m positive I talked about Dylan Covey a couple weeks ago and how he can be dropped and forgotten about in all leagues, even as a streamer. I hope you listened because he now has a 21.00 ERA and a 2.83 WHIP in his last two starts! This is nuts. He hadn’t allowed a homer in in his first four starts if the season. Since, he’s given up six in his last six starts, but that’s in less than 28 IP. Yeah, not good. A 6.1% K%-BB% does not get anyone excited except the opposing hitters. It doesn’t appear that Covey is going to be fantasy relevant this year, so we can move along.

Jose Berrios has given up nine ER in his last two starts and a total of 17 baserunners. Right when I think he’s turned the corner, he blows up. Is he ever going to be an ace everyone hoped for? He’s made progress again this year, take a look at his K%-BB% the last three seasons 5%, 14.8%, and 19.3% this year. However, he’s giving up more home runs and hard contact. There’s always a catch. I really like what I see in Berrios, he just needs to be more consistent. I won’t say that he can be Max Scherzer, but I see a little bit of Scherz in Berrios. Remember, Berrios is only 24 and Scherzer didn’t start dominating until 27. I’m buying in keeper and dynasty, but in redrafts, there may be a few more bumps to go along with those fantastic outings.

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