Joey Gallo, Texas Rangers - Joey Gallo had a ridiculous game with two homers and two walks while driving in five runs. Gallo has been heating up over the last week with four homers in the last six days and his slugging percentage continues to climb through the .400's. June has been the best month of his season by far with a .242 average, .425 OBP, and .530 slugging which gets him to a .956 OPS. The highest OPS of the year he's posted in a single month before this was a .808 mark last month. He's still hitting the ball really hard (and striking out a lot) but he's finally getting something to show for it after the slow start to the year.
Ji-Man Choi, Tampa Bay Rays - Ji-Man Choi went 4-5 with two RBI and two runs scored. Choi's been getting some regular run lately for the Rays, but his .272 average for the season is mostly fueled by this game. With the limited playing time for the Rays, he's posting the second-highest barrel rate of his career and the second-highest hard-hit rate of his career. He's also posting a 16% walk rate, easily the highest rate of his career. If he continues to get regular run there good be something here in deeper leagues.
Kyle Gibson, Texas Rangers - Kyle Gibson tossed seven shutout innings against the Royals with just two hits allowed and a season-high 10 strikeouts. Gibson has been outstanding this year with a perfect 6-0 record and a 2.00 ERA over 90 innings. While he has a modest strikeout rate he's limiting barrels at a very strong rate and also is doing a good job, as always, of keeping the ball on the ground to help limit the damage.
Framber Valdez, Houston Astros - Another game, another strong outing from Framber Valdez. In a shortened game from a double-header, Valdez tossed all six innings and allowed three earned runs while striking out six batters. He's been absolutely dominant since returning from his broken finger with a 2.11 ERA and 35 strikeouts over 38.1 innings. He's allowing a decent amount of hard contact but in Valdez fashion, he's running a 70% groundball rate.
DJ LeMahieu, New York Yankees - DJ LeMahieu posted a 4-5 line at the plate with his seventh homer of the year. DJ has seen a power spike in the month of June with four homers and a season-high .454 slugging percentage. Most of LeMahieu's batted ball data looks similar to last season, which can explain the step back in stats due to the changes with the ball. He's striking out at a higher rate this season but is also walking at over a 10% clip for the first time since 2016. He's too talented of a hitter to struggle for an entire season, and things are picking back up quickly.
