Kevin Gausman, Baltimore Orioles - Kevin Gausman shutout the Red Sox over 7.2 innings Saturday to earn his 10th win of the season. While his second half of the season hasn't been the greatest in the world, posting a 4.02 ERA in 47 innings seems like Cy Young caliber compared to his near 6 ERA he posted in the first half of the season. He's Still very very very homer prone and batters have a 40 point higher slugging percentage in the second half. His strikeouts have made a huge jump between halfs with an almost 10% jump in his K%. We're making progress on getting near what we hoped we saw last season but the homer prone-ness that he's shown this year will keep him from making any serious strides this year.
Sean Manaea, Oakland A's - Sean Manaea won his 9th game of the year allowing two runs over seven innings. The strange disappearance of his strikeouts though continued as he punched out just three in his five innings. In the first half of the year he was extremely usable with a 24% strikeout rate but has just a 13.7% strikeouts rate in the second half. His batted ball chart doesn't make the picture that much prettier though as his hard hit rate and his fly ball rate have both taken significant jumps in the second half.
Alex Bregman, Houston Astros - Alex Bregman continues to be on an absolute tear ever since he sent those DMs to the Astros fan who suggested that the team might want to deal him at the deadline. Bregman went 2-for-4 at the plate with his 14th stolen base of the year. The most stolen bases Bregman ever had in the minors was 13 so he's already eclipsed that total this year (we'll ignore the part it took 56 more games). Over the last two weeks he's posted a 162 wRC+ and has been exactly what the Astros needed after Carlos Correa went on the DL.
Carlos Rodon, Chicago White Sox - Carlos Rodon took his 5th loss of the season after allowing five runs in five innings Saturday. This was Rodon's first non-quality start since July 25th as he's really settled into a groove after a slow start to his season after missing the first half of the season. Before Saturday, over his last five starts he's posted a 2.25 ERA with a 9.25 K/9 in that span. He's definitely worth hanging onto as he can provide an elite strikeout rate but don't expect many wins because this White Sox team is BAD.
Corey Dickerson, Tampa Bay Rays - Corey Dickerson has been great overall this year and it looks like he's moving past his midseason slump with a 5 game hit streak now and he has three homers in that stretch including his 25th of the season Saturday. He hit just .220 in July and had a relatively slow August as well hitting .240. The power has remained consistent though as he has hit 8 homers in 39 game and he hit 17 in 85 games in the first half.
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