Chief among the poor start to the Rangers' offensive output is Rougned Odor's performance. Fortunately, he collected two hits yesterday and added two runs scored. Odor somehow managed 33 HR last year, and with 6 HR in 2017, his power has been respectable, but at the expense of all else. His FB% of 51.5% is excellent, but few are even getting to the outfield, as he has a 25.5% IFFB. What's scary is that in 2015, that rate was 19.1%, so there is precedence here to make that number seem not that whacky. That said, I think that will improve and we'll see the power numbers continue to be there, with some average upside as well since there's no big K increase, just poor contact (.191 BABIP). He's a good buy low candidate, but temper expectations because a .270 average may be out of reach if he doesn't start squaring up better.
34-year-old Seth Smith is worth a pickup in daily lineup leagues. Smith won't play every day - he has but 1 AB against lefties this season - but he's sporting a 153 wRC+ against righties, all while batting leadoff for the Orioles. If you can afford the roster space, this is an easy pick up. He hit his 3rd HR of the season last night, notching his stock even higher.
Yonder Alonso had become a joke as one of the only corner infielders to not hit double digit HR in a season. That changed yesterday as he hit his 10th HR of the season yesterday; his wRC+ is now over 180 for the year. Alonso has completely changed his approach at the plate and has adopted the new fly ball philosophy. 50% of his contact is a flyball, and the results are incredible. I'm buying in on Alonso. His pace will slow, but with this new approach, he seems like a lock for 25 HR, if not more at this pace. We're looking at a new hitter.
It was just his 5th start, but AJ Griffin continued to impress yesterday as he tossed a CG SO with 4 K's against the Padres. Through 20.1 innings entering yesterday, he sported a 10.2 K/9 and a 3.35 SIERA; both fantastic numbers. He's played with fire a bit given a 51.9% FB, but all in all, it's been a great start. While he's sporting an increased 10.1% SwStr%, it's just a small sample size and we'll need to revisit it once Griffin hits 50 innings or so. His velocity barely touches 89 MPH, and his career strikeouts are two less per nine innings than we've seen; neither of those facts sound encouraging. Despite the strong early results, don't buy into the strikeouts, but he could make a serviceable two start or spot starter, like when he plays the Padres. Griffin is now 4-0.
It was just his third game batting leadoff, but Mookie Betts hit his second HR from the leadoff spot last night - just his 4th HR of the season. Fortunately Betts went 3-for-3 with a walk, 2 runs, and 2 RBIs (through 7), which is much more in line with what owners were expecting when taking him among the first 5 players off the board. It's been a slow start for Mookie, but as we saw last year, he tends to perform in bunches as you might remember his 3 HR performance against the Orioles. He'll put up some fantastic numbers, but it might be below top 5 overall expectations.
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