Trevor Bauer, Cleveland Indians - Trevor Bauer is coming off what might be the best game of his career punching out 14 batters and allowing just three runs in seven innings. The biggest reason that Bauer has a career high 11.53 K/9 this year and that's in huge part to the fact he's following a now semi-popular trend of relying extremely heavily on his incredible curveball. He's using the hook at a 25% clip, and the only season he's ever come close to that was his rookie season where he was around 22%. As a team the Royals own the 2nd worst wRC+ in the majors overall and are also the second worst against right handers this season. Bauer should have an excellent outing.
Whit Merrifield, Kansas City Royals - While having the name of an 1800's poet, Whit Merrifield has been outstanding over the last month of the season and continued to produce Saturday in the Royals win. Merrifield went just 1-for-4 but he did have a double, 2 RBI, and one run scored. In the month of May he produced a 131 wRC+ and in the ridiculously short June sample he's got a 162 wRC+. We saw Merrifield hit .283 in his debut last season but that was in part to his BABIP being .361, however this season he's shaved his strikeout rate from 21.7% to 19% and he's putting up a higher batting average (.293) on a BABIP that's 60 points lower than last season. You could make a slight argument he's been unlucky in this case and an average over .300 is likely but he's gotten a bit fly ball heavy this year closing in on 40%.
Andrew Benintendi, Boston Red Sox - I saw tweets from Red Sox fans asking beat writers if Andrew Benintendi was in risk of getting sent to AAA and thought "Wait is he doing that badly?" I was extremely shocked to see how far he'd fallen off since his hot start. After posting a 132 wRC+ in the month of April he PLUMMETED down to earth to a 52 wRC+. Despite having a hard hit rate in the same ballpark both months, his LD rate dropped from 23% to 9% in the two months and that would explain the overall stat drop. I still love Benintendi both this year and long term and it brings some comfort knowing that he is still making hard contact but just needs to level some swings out.
Lorenzo Cain, Kansas City Royals - Lorenzo Cain went 3-for-4 on Saturday to get him wRC+ up over 100 for the season and launched his third homer of the season. The Royals as a whole have been dreadful offensively and Cain has been no exception after posting a 106 wRC+ in the first month of the season and following it with an 80 wRC+ in May. His hard hit rate is dropping for the third season in a row as has his line drive rate which is a combination I don't like to see. He may have been bitten by some bad luck in May as he had a 10% higher hard hit rate but his BABIP sunk to .284. Regardless of all his batted ball stats Cain just doesn't have the same upside as he showed a few years ago with the Royals.
Jackie Bradly Jr, Boston Red Sox - After a brutal start to the season Jackie Bradley Jr has been hot as of late hitting .306 with a 179 wRC+ since May 21st with three homers and 12 RBI. Chris Tillman is slated to be the starter Sunday for the Orioles and he's been miserable since returning from the DL at the beginning of May posting a 5.87 ERA (4.91 FIP) with 6 K/9 and a horrific 4.3 BB/9. JBJ has solid career numbers against Tillman with a .357/.400/.786 triple slash with a double, triple, and homer in 14 at bats. Bradley has struggled mightily against RHP this year, but Tillman is allowing a .431 wOBA against lefties so something has to give.
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