Joey Gallo, Texas Rangers - Joey Gallo was activated from the IL on Tuesday and went 1-for-4 at the plate with a double, walk, and three strikeouts. The Rangers are getting a huge boost back to their lineup in Gallo and his .276/.420/.649 triple slash with 17 homers. Gallo is still striking out in 36% of at-bats but is walking in nearly 20% of his at-bats but he's running a .392 BABIP to offset that fueled by a hard hit rate over 50%. It's unlikely that he's going to run a .270-ish average for the whole season, but he's going to obviously hit his share of homers and be an incredibly valuable asset going forward.
Oscar Mercado, Cleveland Indians - Oscar Mercado picked up another two hits and his triple slash is sitting at .309/.361/.471 over 150 plate appearances. Mercado's main appeal when he was called up was the potential for stolen bases, but he's showing a solid amount of pop with a .162 ISO and four homers. It's quite possible that with the ball change this year that I didn't take much stock in his AAA, focusing more on his lack of power in the lower minors but the .202 ISO in AAA has continued into the majors as we've seen the power spike in both the majors and AAA this year. The Indians have finally found an answer in the outfield after a couple of years of stopgap pieces.
Blake Snell, Tampa Bay Rays - Blake Snell was crushed for the third straight start, this time allowing seven runs on 11 hits in 3.1 innings. Snell's ERA now sits at an awful 5.01 ERA but still is sporting a 3.48 FIP because he's getting crushed by a .357 BABIP. Entering Tuesday's game Snell was sporting a ridiculous 20% strikeout rate and having a solid 31.7% hard-hit rate against him. Go buy him if you can get him on the cheap from a nervous owner, he'll definitely right the ship.
Jesse Chavez, Texas Rangers - Jesse Chavez tossed 6.1 innings and allowed just one unearned run to pick up his third win of the season. Chavez is striking out 22% of the batters that he's facing this year but his walk rate has spiked back up to 7% which is still a very good rate, but last year it had dropped to 4%. He's an interesting streaming option in the right matchups.
George Springer, Houston Astros - George Springer went 1-for-4 in his return from the IL. Springer is in the midst of another fantastic season hitting .307 with 17 homers and with four steals he's already close to matching his total for all of last season (6). His boost in average isn't fueled by a huge BABIP increase either at just a 12 point boost over last season, but it's fueled by a 50% hard contact rate for the year.
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