A Little Hoskins in the Game

Rhys Hoskins (PHI): 4-5, 2B, 2 HR, 2 R, 6 RBI.

Rhys Hoskins‘ two home run, six RBI night was not enough to match the Marlins in the back and forth game. Hoskins crushed a three-run 407-foot blast in the fourth to tie the game at four, then broke an 8-8 tie in the eighth with a high fly ball barely making it out of left field. Hoskins has been on fire these past few series, slashing .441/.500/.971 in his last 38 plate appearances, hitting five homers and driving in 11 (six of which were last night). He finished last night 4-5 with 2B, 2 HR, 2 R, 6 RBI.

He did have a slow start to the year slashing .189/.291/.347 in the first month with only two home runs. He was striking out nearly 30% of the time, but at least he was finding ways to get on base. However, since that first month (May 9th and on) he is slashing .290/.364/.565 over 154 plate appearances. Hoskins has been a new player. He’s hit 11 home runs driving in 27 with a 157 wRC+. It is tough to see what he has done in this span with a few other NL first basemen dominating as well. But Hoskins has been showing that he’s worthy to be in this conversation too.

Overall, his hard hit rate has stayed similar to previous seasons but his ground ball rate has seen a tick up to 34.5% when it is usually below 30%. With that, his barrels have been down too. We have seen that power come back, especially this past week. Surprisingly, his plate discipline and batted ball numbers are nearly identical from May 9th on and prior. He’s been playing a similar way, but he’s just finally seeing good results.

Let’s see how the other hitters did Tuesday:

Paul Goldschmidt (STL): 6-8, 3 HR, 4 R, 8 RBI, BB.

Even after his hitting streak was snapped and his hitless three games at the end of last week, Goldschmidt is still somehow the hottest hitter on the planet. In yesterday’s doubleheader, he launched three 400-foot homers. In the second game, all four of his balls in play were over 100 MPH. He also had a home run in Monday’s game with three more hits. He now has a total of sixteen home runs and 56 RBIs with a 200 wRC+. There is finally a player with a 200 wRC+ again.

Willson Contreras (CHC): 3-4, 2B, 2 HR, 3 R, 3 RBI.

One of the biggest trade targets of this season, Contreras showed off his wares with three extra-base hits including two 382-foot home runs and a 100 MPH double. In this integral year, he’s having his best season yet. He already has 12 homers, half of his highest season. His K rate is below 20% for the first time in his career and his walk rate is at its highest at 11.3%. Lastly, his hard hit rate is an absurd 57.9% and couple that with a 38.6% fly ball rate and it shows why he’s dominating.

Ryan Mountcastle (BAL): 3-5, 2 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI.

Mountcastle had a solid day at the plate, starting with a worm-burner double all the way to the wall, a 106.3 MPH homer, and a 110 MPH line out. I haven’t paid much attention to Mountcastle yet this year and wow—this little exploration has been eye-opening. A 49.7% hard hit rate with significantly better Savant xStats than his real slash line. He’s having similar outcomes to last season and would finish with a similar stat line to 2021 if he kept his pace the rest of the season. But his line drive and ground ball rate are up a bit with a nine percent drop in fly ball rate. Despite that, his barrel rate is up three percentage points to nearly 15% on the year.

Michael Harris II (ATL): 3-5, 2B, HR, R, 2 RBI.

Harris has been up with the team for practically the extent of Atlanta’s winning streak. He’s popped his first couple of home runs the last two games including a 412-foot home run last night and two other 100 MPH batted balls. He’s not too much of a power threat overall, and much more of a threat on the bases. He has been hitting the ball hard in his 65 major league PAs, but a ground ball rate over 50% with a BABIP of .383 will not keep up.

Jorge Mateo (BAL): 1-3, R, BB, 2 SB.

With his two steals yesterday, Mateo has jumped into second for the stolen base lead in the majors. With his .214/.249/.344 slash there is no other reason to have him on your fantasy team and it may be questionable to have him just for the steals anyway. There’s no one stealing over 50 bases anymore so having a 40 stolen base guy that will bring down every other category is a tough pill to swallow.

Luke Voit (SD): 2-6, 2B, HR, 2 R, 5 RBI.

Voit ripped a 408-foot homer and a hard double, driving in a total of five runs last night. He has been doing most of the DHing for the Padres, batting in the middle of the lineup as well. The results haven’t been coming, though, as this was only his seventh homer on the year. He’s striking out 34% of the time and has a 101 wRC+. His hard hit rate is under 40% (low 40s is normal for him) but he’s still maintaining a solid 12.6% barrel rate. He’s just not hitting the ball often enough.

Travis d’Arnaud (ATL): 3-5, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI.

Travis d’Arnaud added three hard hits and a nearly 400-foot blast to keep helping Atlanta with their win streak. This has been a bit of an odd year for him. He’s slashing .262/.305/.470 for a 114 wRC+. Solid for a catcher. His K rate is 20%, but his walk rate is below three percent. He also is barely hitting the ball hard, at 35.9%. That is back to his Mets days. He is swinging at a lot more pitches out of the zone and making more contact with them, a great way to produce bad contact. It’s better than striking out but it’s not as good as taking the pitch. He’s still getting good at bats in a good lineup. As a catcher, that is worth it for your fantasy team.

Jesús Aguilar (MIA): 2-5, 2B, HR, R, 4 RBI.

Aguilar added a 405-foot blast for his ninth on the year, bringing his slash line to .251/.304/.428. It has been a fine season for Aguilar with 31 RBIs, but nothing spectacular. His hard hit rate is down to the low 30s and he’s swinging at more pitches out of the zone while seeing less in the zone. He’s striking out a bit more than usual (up to 23.5%) and walking less (down to 7.6%). Being a bit more patient at the plate could kick his year to the next gear but there are more options for your team than hoping for that.

 

Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter)