William Contreras- C- MIL- Idea- Contreras' performance this season has put his name in early MVP talk. He is slashing .353/.430/.543 with 6 homers in 200 PAs. Contreras owns a 94.4 EV and 60.3% HardHit%. His LA is only 6.9 and FB% is 29.4%. Contreras has a BABIP of .417 which shows some luck but is also a result of how hard he is hitting the ball with a LD% of 19.1% and GB% of 51.5%. He sprays the ball around the field with a difference of only 5 % between his Pull% and Oppo%. In 2021 with the Braves, Contreras hit 8 homers in 185 PAs. He had a higher FB% that year. It seems like Contreras could hit more homers if he wanted to but chooses to increase his average at the expense of power. It's working for him and gives him excellent value.
Tommy Pham- OF- CHW- Hot- Pham went 3-for-5 with a double, run, and SB last night as he continues his hot delayed start to 2024. In 19 games he is slashing .338/.380/.486 with 2 homers, 11 runs, 10 RBI, and 2 steals. Pham has a 23.0% chase rate, 6.9% SwStr%, and 83.5% Contact%. His K% is only 12.7% but his BB% is 5.1%, well below his career norm of 11.5%. Pham is enjoying a BABIP of .371, which is boosting his average. His EV has dropped from 92.3 in 2023 to 90.6 and his HardHit% has decreased from 48.8% to 36.7%. Looking at the big picture his current production is not sustainable unless he can recover some power.
Ildemaro Vargas- 2B- WAS- Stats- Vargas has been fairly consistent in his batting average and OBP this season and is currently slashing .300/.402/.414 in 83 PAs. He has a BB% of 14.5% and a K% of only 8.4%. He has a chase rate of 28.0%, SwStr% of 4.7% and contact% of 88.2%. There is no power there as Vargas has yet to hit a homer this season and only 8 of his 21 hits are for extra bases, all doubles. He is not a full time player, but has a lot of versatility, appearing at 2B, 3B, SS, and LF. He is a streaming option for average and OBP and can be plugged in at numerous positions.
Kyle Hendricks- P- CHC- Cold- Hendricks was charged with 8 runs (7 earned) in 4.2 IP on 11 hits while walking no one and striking out 4. The announcers kept talking about how unlucky he was yesterday, and they might have had a point. While his ERA for the game was 13.50, his FIP was 4.19 and his xFIP was just 2.30. For the season Hendricks has a 10.57 ERA, 6.90 FIP, and 4.12 xFIP. Homers have been his bane so far in 2024. He has a HR/9 of 2.93, way above his career mark of 1.05. Hendricks gave up 7 long balls across his first 4 starts this season but only 1 in each of his last 3 starts. He looks like a pitcher who will benefit from regression. Hendricks 7.34 K/9 is better than last year. His 3.23 BB/9 is uncharacteristic for him and he has only walked 4 in his last 13.2 IP.
Pete Alonso- 1B- NYM- Stats- While Alonso has 10 homers, he is slightly behind the 40-homer pace that has become expected from him. He has also been plagued by a poor BABIP (.228) as he was in 2023. Alonso's .226/.307/.458 are not the kind of numbers he was thought to put up in his contract year. He is experiencing his 4th straight year of decline in EV maxEV, and HardHIt%. Alonso's HR/FB ratio is the lowest of his career. He doesn't turn 30 until the offseason, but the trends are not encouraging.
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