Spencer Torkelson hit a pair of homers Tuesday and drove in five runs. 2023 hasn't been kind to Tork, but his month of July has been solid with a .283/.345/.566 slash line. His hard-hit rate is over 50% for the second month of the season, and he's in the middle of his second straight season being over 30% fly balls. His barrel rate also is up over 15% for the second straight month, up from the 9% that he averaged in the first two months of the season. It's still not the production that was hyped since he was selected first overall, but we're starting to see signs of progress that looks like we can get him there.
Bryce Elder was bitten a little by the regression monster on Tuesday, getting chased in the third inning by Arizona after allowing seven runs (five earned). He allowed seven hits in the start, walked one, allowed one homer, and struck out four batters. Elder posted a decent whiff rate in the outing (for him) considering he was hit so hard, but the average exit velocity off him in the game was 91 MPH as Arizona teed off on him. This was Elder's first start out of the All-Star break, but this now marks back-to-back rough outings after the Rays tagged him for seven earned runs on the 9th of July. Elder doesn't exactly have swing-and-miss stuff, but he's struck out over five batters in a start now just twice now since the beginning of June. Unsurprisingly his ERA has risen almost a fun run in that same span as the swing and miss has started. He's allowed a ton of hard contact all year, and now his batted-ball luck has started to fall off on him.
Julio Teheran allowed four runs over 4.2 innings against the Phillies, striking out three batters. Teheran's Milwaukee stint started out solid but has quickly derailed into the pitcher he was at the tail end of his Atlanta days and every team since. He allowed a ton of hard contact with nine batted balls registering over 95 MPH, and now there are three straight starts with at least a run per inning given up. The run was nice there for a moment, but there's no reason to roster Teheran now. There's a glaring lack of whiffs for him combined with a below league-average chase rate so there's not really a way for him to generate swing and miss. His entire success hinges on him not allowing the ball to go in the air and that's something that has always plagued him since the velocity drop early in his career.
Christian Walker swatted a pair of homers Tuesday to push his season total to 20, while also driving in five runs in the Diamondbacks' 16-13 win in Atlanta. He's up to 63 runs batted in for the year and he's swiped seven bags to go along with his .262/.333/.515 triple slash line. Walker has improved his batted ball data across the board from last season with his max-exit velocity being up and he's also shaved a few points off his already excellent strikeout rate. Combining that with the huge increase in the talent surrounding him compared to prior seasons, his overall stat line has taken a nice jump.
Bryan Woo struggled badly against the Mariners with seven runs (six earned runs) over 3.1 innings. He struck out four batters but also walked three and allowed eight hits. Woo finally ran into a tough start after he had allowed just eight runs over his 32.2 innings after his first start. Woo has been outstanding for the Mariners this year despite the 4.74 ERA that sits on his main line because most of the damage came in his MLB debut giving up six runs in two innings. He's striking out batters at an elite rate, walks (outside of the start) haven't been much of an issue, and he's also running a sub-40% hard-hit rate.
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