Shohei Ohtani (DH/SP-LAA)
Ohtani went 2-4 with a double and a HR, his 11th of the season. He also struck out twice. Ohtani now has a very impressive .264/.309/.600 line and has developed into one of the premier power bats in the AL. While he has put up monster power numbers with 22 extra base hits in 37 games, the strikeouts may be a bit unsettling to some as he has a 27% K rate and just a 4% walk rate. He is swinging at a career high 53% of the pitches he sees and while his 69% contact rate is about on par and O-swing of 36% and a O-Contact rate of 51% have made him strikeout a lot. This is about the only flaw in his game as when he makes contact, it goes, as evidenced by a 20% barrel rate, 51% hard hit rate and 91 mph exit velocity. Most fans know about his power and pitching numbers, if that wasn't enough he has swiped 6 bases. If he stays healthy, and is able to pitch once a week he should be a top 5 MVP Candidate, at a minimum.
Griffin Canning (SP-LAA)
Canning had a quality start vs Boston Friday, allowing 2 ER over 6 innings, while striking out 7. Canning has been a bit all over the place this year but limited a good Red Sox lineup to just a 2-run homer while he generated 15 swinging strikes. While he has a career high 10.4 K/9 he has been getting crushed by the longball (7 HR in 32 IP) as batters have slugged .515 vs him. After getting shelled for 6 runs in 2+ innings a few weeks ago he has been better his past 2 starts, allowing just 1 ER over 11 innings. Entering play Friday his slider hasn't been quite as effective as it was last year when opposing batter his just .185 against it. He threw the pitch 22% of the time last year and has upped that usage to 33% this year - and batters are hitting .233 with 3 HR against it - he gave up just 1 home run all last season on it. He lines up to square off against Jose Berrios and the Twins next Thursday.
Yasmani Grandal (C-CWS)
Grandal struck out in all 3 at bats in the White Sox Game 1 DH loss. It has been a strange season for the White Sox catcher as he has posted a .125/.373/.319 line. A .114 babip is partially to blame for the lowest batting average in the American League and he is also putting a career high 50% of his batted balls on the ground. While Grandal has turned in a double-digit walk % just about every season he has taken his patience at the plate to another level - with a whooping 29% walk rate with the next highest being 18% from Carlos Santana. He is swinging at a career low 25% of pitches he has seen across the board - including only 39% of pitches in the zone. His contact rate of 74% is about in line with his career mark, and while the walks are nice to see Grandal has good power from a catcher, so it'd be nice to see him be slightly more aggressive.
Corey Kluber (SP-NYY)
Kluber allowed 4 ER on 7 hits, while striking out 6 over 6 innings. While he hasn't quite returned to the form that made him a 2-time Cy Young Award winner with the Indians, he has looked better as of late for Yankees and owns a 3.48 ERA (3.92 fip) on the season. He has dialed up a 8.9 K/9 right in line with his career mark and as always has limited the longball (0.8 HR/9). He also has a slightly above average 49% groundball rate this year. The one outlier is his walk rate. He was consistently one of the best control artists in his heyday with the Indians but he saw a massive spike from 1.4 BB/9 in 2017 to 3.8 in 2019 and he has struggled again this year with an even higher 4.3 BB/9 mark. As his velocity declines (his 4 seam fastball sits at 89 mph) batters have had a slightly better eye - and are only chasing his pitches 29% of the time down from the Mid-30%s, one possible reason for the walk increase.
Brad Keller (SP-KC)
Keller got the win in game 1 of the Royals DH, allowing 2 ER over 5 innings, striking out 7. Keller has struggled this year as entering play Friday he only has lasted 28 innings covering 7 starts and has a career high 4.13 BB/9. Keller has actually added 1.2 mph on his fastball from last year to bring it up to 94 mph but hitters haven't been fooled and have been teeing off of it. Batter Barrel rates are up 4x times from a year ago to a 12.3% mark and for the first time in his career Keller is generating groundballs at under a 50% clip (43%). This means more flyballs, and a largely elevated HR/9 (1.59 - career 0.67).
This is just a small sample our daily analysis, join our member area for over 80 daily player updates sent to your inbox every morning and track your team online. Click here for details: https://www.insiderbaseball.com/baseballsample.htm Click here to register: http://www.fantistics.com/salesbaseball.php3
