Javier Baez (2B-CHC) enjoyed another fine day at the plate against the Rockies on Sunday, going 2-6 with a three-run homer. The homer was his 7th on the campaign, and he is hitting .292 (.363 OBP) with 23 RBI and 18 runs scored. While the power output is unsurprising, Baez has slashed his strikeout rate to 18.9%, well below his MLB career rate of 28.7%. He is also showing a greater willingness to walk, as his 8.1% rate in 2018 is a nice improvement over his career figure of 5.2%. His low .283 BABIP entering play on Sunday (.329 career) suggests that he could even hit for a higher average with a little more luck. His batted-ball profile also offers some good news, as his 40.4% hard-hit rate is a career-high (31.6% career) while he is hitting more liners (28% in 2018, 18.3% career) and flyballs (40% this year, 37.4% career) in place of grounders (32% in 2018, 44.3% career).
Paul DeJong (SS-STL) went 2-5 with a three-run homer against the Reds on Sunday. Very quietly (almost silently), DeJong is putting together another fine season in which he is batting .260 (.313 OBP) while sitting among the league leaders with seven home runs. His BABIP entering play on Sunday (.343) is nearly identical to last season's (.349), when he hit .285 and he is walking a little more (6.4%, up from 4.7%). He has maintained a similar hard-hit rate (36.6% this year, 36.4% last year) while trading some ground balls (24.4%, down from 33.7%) for flyballs (53.7%, up from 42.9%). The bad news is that he is striking out at an astounding 39.7% clip (up from 28% in 2017). Based on these trends, I wouldn't be surprised to see him finish with a few more home runs than last year's 25 while coming up short of last year's .285 average.
Yasiel Puig (OF-LAD) went 0-3 with two strikeouts against the Nationals on Sunday, lowering his season average to just .213 (.277 OBP). On the surface, things look alright - he's walking 8.8% of the time (9.3% career), striking out 17.5% of the time (same as during his breakout season last year), and posting a BABIP (.271) close to last year's .274. A look at the batted-ball profile highlights some subtle issues, though. His hard-hit rate is down to 30.5%, which would be the lowest in his MLB career (33.6% career), and while he's hitting more line drives (22% in 2018, 16.7% career), he's hitting fewer flyballs (32.2%, career 34.4%), and he's hitting an inordinate percentage (44.1%) to center field (34.3% career). So, nothing in his profile screams that something is obviously wrong; perhaps you can buy him low if you have confidence that he will regain some semblance of the form that he showed last year.
Patrick Corbin (SP-ARI) pitched six strong innings against the Padres on Sunday, giving up two earned runs on two hits and a walk while striking out 11. The 28-year-old has been dynamite this season, compiling a 1.89 ERA, 0.66 WHIP, and 48:6 K/BB ratio across 33.1 innings so far. His xFIP sat at an equally impressive 1.88 entering play on Sunday, although his 86.4% strand rate (72.7% career) and opponent BABIP of .214 (.310 career) suggest that he has benefitted from some luck. At the same time, he has made some of his luck, allowing a hard-hit rate (31%) just below his career average (33.4%) and generating more grounders (56.1% in 2018, 49.2% career) at the expense of liners (15.8% in 2018, 21.2% career). He's also added a curveball to his repertoire, which he is throwing 12.1% of the time, largely in place of his change-up (0.4% this year, 9.5% career) and some four-seamers (48.4% in 2018, 53.4% last year).
Nick Pivetta (SP-PHI) pitched 6.1 solid innings against the Pirates on Sunday, allowing two earned runs on five hits and two walks while striking out seven batters. The 25-year-old now has a stellar 2.57 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in five starts (28 innings pitched) this year while posting a 28:4 K/BB ratio. Nothing suggests that his performance to date is especially fluky, for his xFIP going into today's start was 3.10 while he was stranding 73.9% of runners (67.1% last year) and opposing batters had a .311 BABIP against him (.332 in 2017). One of the keys to his success has been a significantly lower hard-hit rate, as the 23% that batters have managed so far this year is well below 2017's 35.5%. Pivetta is mixing his pitches up a bit more than he did last year, as he has gone from throwing his fastball two-thirds of the time to 59% while throwing more curves (up to 27% this year from 15.5% last year) and about the same amount of sliders (14.3% in 2017 versus 12.4% in 2018).
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