Didi Gregorius, New York Yankees - Didi Gregorius launched a pair of homers Tuesday and drove in eight runs in a 4-for-4 effort against the Rays. The homers were Gregorius' first of the year and his RBI total made a modest jump from one to nine after the game. Gregorius has homered 20+ times in each of the last two seasons as his power has exploded in Yankee Stadium. While Gregorius' pull rate and FB% have climbed over the last few years, his hard hit rate has continued to stay in the low 20% range and while that's a solid number it's not typically what you see out of high HR total players. His 88.5 average exit velocity on line drives and homers ranked 461st last season (among players with 30 batted balls) and last season 15% of his flyballs also left the yard. His batted ball profile makes it look like he gets homer happy at home as he his 46.9% of balls in the and his contact rates dipped mightily with a 7% difference between home and away.
Garrett Richards, Los Angeles Angels - Garrett Richards allowed a homer to Jose Ramirez in the first inning but that was his only hit allowed over 5.2 innings. He struck out nine Indians in the game but still walked four batters as his control has eluded him a bit this season averaging around five walks per nine. Richards has always had incredible stuff but this year it's even been on the uptick a little more has all of his fastball, slider, and curveball are all up at least one MPH compared to last season. His slider was particularly filthy on Tuesday generating 10 swings and misses on 30 offerings and he had an extra 5 called strikes on top of that. Stuff has never been the question for Richards and maybe if we are seeing his velocity up across the board that maybe he's fully healthy for the first time in a while.
Yoan Moncada, Chicago White Sox - After struggling with strikeouts last season, Moncada has started off on a good note in that K department fanning just 15% of the time before striking out three times in five plate appearances Tuesday. Moncada is likely always going to have swing and miss in his game but his speed hasn't become a factor for him yet as he has no stolen bases this year and also is running a .222 BABIP which is very for someone with his speed. He's absolutely crushing the ball right now too as entering the game Tuesday he was running a 70% hard contact rate with not a single batted ball registering as soft contact. The batted ball profile is for Moncada looks great so he should have plenty of leash on rosters right now.
Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels - After an impressive debut on the mound for Shohei Ohtani over the weekend it was game #2 at DH for the Angels and the phenom launched the first homer of his MLB career in a 3-for-4 game. While Ohtani's first hit against Oakland late last week wasn't very impressive, all three of Ohtani's hits Tuesday registered over 100MPH on their exit velocity. The concerns for me still are 100% on playing time and not talent but it's very nice to see him performing well in the spots when he is getting time.
Josh Tomlin, Cleveland Indians - The Angels took Josh Tomlin out behind the woodshed Tuesday as he allowed eight runs in 3.0 innings while giving up four homeruns. The Angels were squaring up everything evidenced by his 89.2 average exit velocity against him. The only pitch he was able to use somewhat effectively Tuesday was his changeup which generated five swing and misses along with picking up another called strike. The reason why I say somewhat is that despite the solid whiff rate on it every time someone did make contact on it was pretty much travelling in triple digits the opposite direction.
