Corey Seager, SS, TEX
Seager went 2 for 4 with a homer, a double, and two RBI on Friday night. The 29-year-old has been scorching at the plate since the start of July, hitting .405 (17-42) with three home runs and five doubles. He has collected a hit in 12 of his last 13 games and is slashing a ridiculous .355/.416/.628 for the season. Seager's 186 wRC+ and .437 wOBA both lead the majors amongst batters with a minimum of 250 plate appearances. His first season in Texas wasn't anything special, but that's far behind him, he has been fantastic in 2023.
Jonah Heim, C, TEX
Heim went 3 for 5 with a homer and four RBI in his first game since playing in his first All-Star game. To say that the 28-year-old is enjoying a breakout campaign would be an understatement. Heim leads all catchers with 63 RBI, while his 13 homers and 129 wRC+ each rank 3rd amongst major league backstops. Not bad for a guy who owned a career slash line of .214/.275/.374 and an 81 wRC+ in 776 plate appearances coming into the 2023 season. Heim has been chasing (36.7% O-Swing%) and missing (10.4% SwStr%) more this season, but he has been hitting the ball extremely well when contact is made. His 8.5% Barrel% and 23.3% LD% are both vast improvements over his career 6.5% and 17.7% marks before 2023. Additionally, with a 17.4% K% (18.7% career) and 9.9% IFFB% (13.7% career), he is producing less easy outs. Whether Heim can keep this kind of offensive pace up remains to be seen, but even with a dip in production, he should be a top-5 fantasy backstop.
Justin Verlander, SP, NYM
Verlander gave up just two hits, but walked six, in a sporadic outing against the Dodgers. He surrendered just three runs and struck out six, so overall it wasn't a terrible outing for the 40-year-old veteran, but it brought his record to 3-5 on the season. With a 3.72/4.54 ERA/xFIP, Verlander hasn't been awful this season, though he has been a far cry from the Cy Young winner he was just a season ago with the Astros. Father time may have finally caught up with the big right-hander, his 7.56 K/9 and 9.4% SwStr% are his worst outputs since 2008, and 2010, respectively.
Manny Machado, 3B, SD
On Friday, Machado started off the second half of the season much like he ended the first half, going 1 for 4 with a homer and a walk. In his last ten games, Manny is hitting .342 (14-41) with seven dingers and 17 RBI. However, with well below his career numbers across the board, the 31-year-old is having a down campaign on the whole. Machado's 6.5% BB% and 32.5% Hard% are his worst since 2014. The good news is that since the start of July, those numbers are 11.2%, and 46.4%, respectively, so hopefully he is amidst a turnaround. Over, Machado's .261/.309/.465 triple-slash line isn't awful, but for his standards, it's far from ideal.
Corbin Burnes, SP, MIL
The 2021 NL Cy Young award winner hasn't strutted his ace stuff often this season, but he came with the goods on Friday night to get the Brewers even atop the NL Central standings. Burnes racked up a season-high 13 Ks across 6.0 innings of shutout ball against the division-leading Reds. The 28-year-old has posted career lows in SwStr% (11.7%) and O-Swing% (33.2%), which has unsurprisingly led to a career-low 9.13 K/9 output so far this season. This is just Burnes' third season as a full-time starter so the wear of starting duties may have caught up to him a bit this season. He is just 28 years old, and there is nothing too alarming about his numbers thus far, so hopefully a big second half is coming.
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