Michael Conforto, OF, NYM
Conforto continued his hot hitting on Monday going 3-4 with his 16th HR of the season and his 6th in 19 games. Conforto's 20.3% HR/FB doesn't seem like a fluke as it's right near his career 19.5% mark, so he has a legitimate chance at reaching 30 HR's for the first time this season. He has also improved his K% a bit this season and his LD% is back up as well, so we could see his BA remain well above last year's .243 mark.
Maikel Franco, 3B, PHI
Franco went 3-4 with his 10th HR and 3 RBI in a win against the Mets on Monday. It was Franco's 1st HR since June 4 and 1st multi-hit game since May 13th! He started the season strong, but in 54 games prior to Monday's effort, Franco had hit just .188/.234/.301 with 4 HR's in 188 PA's. He has been even worse in June, hitting .147 with just 1 XBH in 14 games entering Monday. It's no surprise therefore that his playing time has dwindled and he has been limited to 10 starts and 42 PA's this month. His contact rate remains excellent but his quality of contact is not, as he entered Monday with the 6th highest Soft% (22.8%) and 4th lowest LD% (14.2%) in all of baseball. This is unfortunately nothing new for Franco; since the start of the 2017 season, he ranks exactly 6th and 4th in those very same two categories. It's beyond time for fantasy owners, and perhaps the Phillies, to move on.
Steven Matz, SP, NYM
Matz was clobbered for 7 ER's on 10 hits, including 3 HR's in 4.1 IP against the Phillies on Wednesday while striking out just 1 and walking 3. Matz carried a solid 3.55 ERA through the first two months of the season and had an acceptable 51:16 K:BB through 50.2 IP. But the wheels have come in June, as he now has a 7.24 ERA and 24:13 K:BB across 27.1 IP over his last 5 starts. He has allowed 8 HR's during that time. As it currently stands, this would his 2nd season in a row with a 3.00+ BB/9 and his 3rd consecutive season with an xFIP over 4.00. That gives little reason for optimism that Matz produces serviceable results for the remainder of the season.
Yasiel Puig, OF, CIN
Puig struggled mightily to open his first season with the Reds, but he's been wielding a hot bat as of late, slashing .400/.449/.867 over his last 12 games, with 5 HR's 11 RBI, and 2 SB's during that stretch. It's promising to see that his K% is just 16.3% over the course of this hot streak; he was at 25.4% for the season beforehand compared to a career 20.2% K%, so hopefully he's regressing back to his norm. He has also elevated his FB% to 47.2% this season, compared to his career mark of 35.9%, which has put him on pace for his first 30 HR season. If these trends keep up, we may end up with Puig's best season yet.
Dansby Swanson, SS, ATL
Swanson hit his 15th HR of the season on Monday, a new career high, and now has 5 HR's, and a .505 SLG in 22 games this June. He has also scored an incredible 25 runs this month! Swanson has upped his Hard% by 7% to 42.8% this season while also mildly reducing his K%. This means he should continue to be a decent source of power without being a BA drain, something that couldn't really be said about him the past couple of years. He finally looks like a usable fantasy SS.
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