A lot of people, myself included, were ready to give up on Odubel Herrera in June, and I think that's perfectly fair. Through the beginning of June, Herrera was slashing .223/.267/.340 with just three home runs and four steals. He looked bad, he didn't look like the nearly 20/20, .280s hitting guy we saw last year. But since then, he's been on a tear, slashing .335/.378/.569 from June 4th on, and he continued that on Monday, going 1-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 3 RBI. What's been interesting, and somewhat disappointing, is what's come along with Herrera's streak. He's been hitting plenty of home runs, but he's only stolen one base since June 4th. It seems Herrera is focusing more on hitting home runs than he is stealing bases. From the beginning of the season through June 3rd, his hard hit rate was just 29.9% and his HR/FB rate just 6%. From June 4th on, his hard hit rate has shot up to 35.9% and along with it, his HR/FB rate has jumped up to 18.2%. Now, I believe the home run numbers will come down, he's not going to keep that HR/FB rate up, but if he keeps hitting the ball as hard as he's been hitting it, the average and the home runs will certainly be serviceable. Sure, it would be nice if he'd steal more bases, and I still think he might break 10 stolen bases on the year, but that's far from what you wanted at the start of the season. That being said, I think Herrera could bat in the .280s the rest of the way and end the year with nearly 20 home runs, and that's a useful player who's available in around 52% of ESPN leagues.
Let's take a look at some of the other performances from Monday:
