Michael Conforto
Conforto continued his strong start to the season by going 3-4 with two doubles and an RBI. More importantly, Conforto had four hard hit balls, three of which were over 100. He's finding the barrel at insane rates right now (22.2% Barrel, 44.4% Sweet-Spot), but it's coming at a cost of striking out at 31%. Some regression is obvious, but Conforto is posting a 23.0 Launch Angle, well above his career high of 15.9. Launch angle changes usually come with swing changes. His 61% Pull is almost double his career average as well. So there is an approach change as well. Conforto appears, at least in this small sample, to have drastically altered his approach and maybe his swing. He is a strong add in all formats right now.
Justin Turner
Red Turn went 0-3 in Friday's contest, but still hit two balls hard and walked once. He's posted a .320 xBA, .433 xwOBA, and 47.4% Hard-Hit. It's really easy to overreact to small samples, and I won't do that here, but Turner had a solid 2023, so it's not entirely crazy to see him start off 2024 in a strong way. He's also walking and striking out at the same rate (11.5%). The underlying fundamentals are really good. If you play in a points league where K/BB ratios matter, Turner is a solid start wherever he is eligible.
Ryan O'Hearn
Whatever they are putting in the water in Baltimore, it's working. While all the attention in the world is going to the blond guys in that organization, O'Hearn is quietly putting together a solid start to the season. He went 2-4 with a 3B and solo homer on Friday. What I love most is that his punchout rates is currently a low 15.4%, well below his career average. Most of it can be attributed to better contact. His 19% Whiff right now is also a career low. O'Hearn is emerging as a viable DH option if you need a good bat to gamble on.
Seiya Suzuki
Suzuki continued his hot start to the season by going 1-2 with a double, 3 RBI, and a walk on Friday. He's now slashing a clean .345/.394/.621. A lot of the underlying numbers support that Suzuki is genuinely hitting the ball well. This season he has the hardest hit ball of his stateside career (115), highest average exit velo (94.6), and has a .342 xBA to justify the quality of balls in play. He's also only punching out at 13.8%. The sample size is still small, but the numbers are worth getting excited about.
Anthony Volpe
Volpe went 2-4 with two hard hit balls on Friday. He has now reached base in all seven games to start the season. He doesn't have any barrels on the year quite yet, but the contact has been very flush (50% Sweet-Spot), he's taking his walks (15.4%) and hitting the ball hard (50%). While it does seem like Volpe has taken a step forward, and I believe he has, the .283 xBA and .533 BABIP indicate there is some serious coming back to earth to be done in the future.
This is just a small sample our daily analysis, join our member area for tools that will help you win your fantasy championship. Click here for details: http://www.insiderbaseball.
