Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins - Byron Buxton homered for the third straight game. Buxton got off to a slow start this year due to his foot injury at the end of summer camp, but he's starting to heat up now with a hit in five straight games. We've seen Buxton go on ridiculous tears before, though they tend to end is sad fashion due to an injury that usually comes from his defensive play. Buxton has only attempted one stolen base so far this year and as we see him get further and further away from his foot injury he should start to run a bit more, as he's still posting 99th percentile sprint speeds.
Jorge Soler, Kansas City Royals - Jorge Soler launched a pair of homers Saturday to give him five for the season and pushed his triple slash to .267/.348/.550. Soler is following up his breakout 2019 extremely well posting 97th percentile exit velocities and a 95th percentile barrel rate, both right in the same ballpark as last year when he hit 48 homers. Soler hits the ball so hard that he's going to run high BABIP totals that help him offset his not-good but not-awful strikeout rate at 28%.
Joey Gallo, Texas Rangers - Joey Gallo has been dealing with a minor wrist injury that kept him out of the lineup on Friday, but he returned to the starting lineup on Saturday to hit his fourth homer of the season. Gallo's triple slash for 2020 is sitting at .256/.360/.605 which is right around where he sat in 2019 when he proved he could post a season without being a complete detriment in the average category. It's still very early, but Gallo is posting a 32% K% for the season which is a career-low for him by around 6%. His barrel rate has dipped a bit from the mid-20% range to "just" 16%, so the two could be connected with him putting the ball in play more often with the trade-off being softer contact at times.
Rafael Montero, Texas Rangers - Rafael Montero struck out two batters in a perfect ninth inning to earn the save for the Rangers on Saturday. Montero has picked up two saves this week and appears to be the new closer for the team after Jose Leclerc went on the IL with his shoulder strain. Montero has top prospect pedigree from his time with the Mets and last season in the bullpen for the Rangers we saw him post a 30% strikeout rate with a 4.4% walk rate, a significant drop from his BB% that was over 10% for the first few years of his career.
Frankie Montas, Oakland A's - Frankie Montas tossed a gem on Saturday with five strikeouts over seven shutout innings. Montas allowed just two runners via base hits and his ERA now sits at just 1.79 over 23 innings. He was able to generate a 37% CSW in the outing, and he had two pitches (sinker and splitter) that generated CSW's over 40% on each individual pitch. Montas has used the sinker significantly more this season at 46% while we've seen the splitter's usage take the biggest step back out of any of his offerings.
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