Willie Calhoun, Texas Rangers - Willie Calhoun is continuing to impress in his extended stint in the majors as he hit his 12th homer on Tuesday while going 3-for-6 in the double-header. Calhoun struck out twice Tuesday, something he's excelled at avoiding with just an 18% K% though 189 plate appearances this season. Calhoun has seen a stark increase to his launch angle this year with a jump to 17.9%, up from his 11.6% last season. His barrel rate is still fairly low for as pure of a hitter that Calhoun can be, so he could really take off if he starts squaring up more balls to pair with his 39.6% hard contact rate. He's worth looking at in leagues as long as he's playing, and with the multitude of injuries in the Rangers' outfield, he should continue to play every day.
Kyle Seager, Seattle Mariners - Kyle Seager's absurd run continued Tuesday with homer number 17 on the year while going 2-for-4 at the plate. Since July 2nd, he's hitting .263 but is running a .299 ISO with 11 homers while running a sub-20% K%. Seager had basically fallen out of fantasy relevance the last few seasons before surging back this summer. Over those two months, he's running a 38.5% hard contact rate while also generating a 40% FB%, both in line with his season averages but his HR/FB rate has soared to 25% after being at 11.5% in the first half. He squaring up balls at a much higher rate this half, and it's fueled his resurgence.
Nick Solak, Texas Rangers - Nick Solak made his major league debut for the Rangers Tuesday, picking up a hit in the first game of the doubleheader and he homered in game two later on. Solak was picked up from the Rays in a July trade, and he's done nothing but rake for the since coming over with a .347/.368/.653 slash line with the teams' AAA club and had hit 10 homers in 30 games. Solak has been traded three times since being drafted in 2016, but he's done nothing but hit at any stop as he's posted at least a 140 wRC+ at every stop but two. This kind of batting upside should definitely be looked at in any format.
Max Kepler, Minnesota Twins - Max Kepler's breakout season just keeps on rolling as he hit his 34th homer of the season on Tuesday. Kepler has seen a 6% jump in his hard contact rate this season but his launch angle, hard hit velo, and FB% are all similar to last season. The two big increases for Kepler have come in the form of a 3% jump in hi barrel rate, and a 12% increase in his pull percentage. That combination of batted ball info helps explain how someone jumps from 20 homers to 34 homers in around 80 fewer plate appearances. He has a real chance to go 100/40/100 in R/HR/RBI this year.
Andrew Heaney, Los Angeles Angels - Andrew Heaney tossed an absolute gem on Tuesday with 14 strikeouts over eight innings, to pick up his third win of the season. This makes back-to-back quality starts (though this one far better) but he's struck out six batters with no walks before the 14 strikeouts this game against no walks. Heaney struggled with his command over his first handful of starts, but since his start on June 30th, he's tossed 34 innings and walked just six batters against 42 strikeouts.
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