Ender Inciarte, OF, ATL
Inciarte has seen his BA dip to .240 this season, a steep fall for a guy who entered the season with a .292 career average (through two big-league seasons). He has never shown tons of power but this year the power has been non-existent with 11 XBH's and no HR's through 52 games. He hasn't taken kindly to his shift from Arizona to Atlanta, as he had a .323 BA at home through his first 2 seasons compared to .221 at home this year. He should still see some improvement, but it looks like the change in ballparks has really put a hit to his value.
Max Scherzer, SP, WAS
Scherzer was dominant again on Wednesday, striking out 10 in 7.1 shutout innings against the Mets. This was his 3rd straight game with exactly 10 K's and he now has gone at least 6 IP with 2 ER's or less allowed in 8 of his last 10 starts and has 6 double-digit strikeout games over that span (including one 20 K' performance). While Scherzer has definitely been hurt by the long ball (he leads of all of baseball with 20 HR's allowed), we should expect to see his 17.2% HR/FB regress towards his career norm of 10.5%. Meanwhile, he also now leads all of baseball in strikeouts with 148, and there's no regression looming for that. Unfortunately, Scherzer will probably not make the all-star team as his 3.30 ERA doesn't stand out, but make no mistake, he is still one of the pitchers in baseball.
Jameson Taillon, SP, PIT
Taillon tallied a career high 6 strikeouts in 6 IP against the Mariners on Wednesday, allowing 1 ER and lowering his ERA to 3.86. His K' totals (6.75 K/9) have been mediocre in the early going of his big league career, but he has posted a very good walk rate (1.61 BB/9) as well as GB% (51.8%). The six strikeouts on Wednesday were a step in the right direction, but we still have to see if he can keep that up.
Trayce Thompson, OF, LAD
Thompson has been a complete mess ever since his brother Klay and the Warriors were trounced from the NBA finals, going 2-26 with no XBH's or RBI and 10 K's since Golden State lost game 7. The trauma should eventually subside, but Thompson will still have to work on improving his 23.7% K% if he wishes for his BA to go up. While that may happen considering his solid SwStr%, the power production (11 HR's in 69 games) may drop as his 25.0% HR/FB is likely to regress.
Ben Zobrist, 2B, OF, CHC
It hasn't been a very good June for Zobrist, as he entered Wednesday's contest with a .198 BA for the month before picking up two hits against the Reds on Wednesday. And this comes after a May in which he hit .406 with a 1.137 OPS. Zobrist is sure to rebound as he continues to make very good contact and he has been extraordinarily steady with a BA between .269 and .276 each of the past 5 years. His 35.7% Hard% is a career high by a decent margin, so it's reasonable to think that he improves on that trend as well as approaches 20 HR's for the first time since 2012. Don't expect a repeat of his May, but also don't expect this slump to carry on much longer.
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