Swanson’s Pyramid of Greatness
Dansby Swanson (CHC): 2-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 7 RBI.
As someone who isn’t particularly invested in Chicago sports, it sometimes feels like Dansby Swanson is just another guy. In NFBC Main Event drafts, he was the 16th shortstop off the board, meaning he was usually considered a middle infielder more than a lineup staple. In early reports on likely top draft pick Roch Cholowsky, analysts referred to him as a “bulkier Dansby Swanson” and “a little boring.” Neither of these comments was intended as a pejorative, but I started the season feeling a bit defensive on behalf of the Cubs’ shortstop. Despite a basically league-average bat, his defense has carried him to 30.6 wins above replacement thus far in his career. He’s an excellent candidate for the Hall of Very Good, even if he’ll probably fall short of Cooperstown proper. Swanson, however, like many other Cubs, had a rough May, finishing the month with a .448 OPS that left his season line at .189/.295/.346 entering yesterday’s doubleheader.
One massive day from Swanson has lifted his season line closer to his career averages. In the first half of the Cubs’ two games vs the Mets, Swanson went 2-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 7 RBI. He added a 3-5, 3B, R, 4 RBI, SB line in the nightcap, boosting his season line to .202/.303/.385. His new line is good for a 93 wRC+, up from 82 the day before. Swanson and the Cubs started slowly against Nolan McLean in the day game, with McLean striking out 6 through 4 scoreless innings. Swanson was one of the strikeout victims and struck out again against McLean in the 5th inning. In the sixth inning, however, Swanson came to bat against McLean with runners on the corners and two outs. McLean’s 100th pitch of the night was a fastball that tailed over the middle of the plate, high and in the strike zone, and Swanson sent it out to left-center for a three-run shot. In the eighth inning, Mets reliever Jonathan Pintaro was working his second inning, and Pintaro’s shaky command came back to bite him. He walked the first two batters of the inning before hitting Miguel Amaya to load the bases (the Mets’ third hit batter of the night). This time, Swanson got a cutter middle-in and put it in the same spot as his previous at-bat, just 20 feet deeper into the stands for a grand slam.
In the nightcap, the Mets sent Sean Manaea to the hill. Swanson again struck out in his first at-bat vs Manaea before heating up later in the game. In his second at-bat, Swanson dumped a 75 MPH sweeper from Manaea into short left field for an RBI single. In his third at-bat, Swanson broke a 4-4 tie with a triple off the wall to right field. The story of the second game was really the Mets’ fielding ineptitude. While Swanson’s triple is scored as a hit, AJ Ewing didn’t appear to be going full speed to try to catch the ball, and took a half-hearted jump at the wall a couple of feet to the right of where the ball struck. Swanson’s long fly had only a .150 probability of turning into a hit according to Statcast, but it counts the same in the scorebook. After a soft lineout in the eighth inning, Swanson got another chance at the plate in the ninth thanks to the last of the Mets’ 6 errors in the game. Swanson took advantage by sending a hard-hit liner to left-center for a single and his third and fourth RBIs of the night. Swanson’s 15 RBIs in the series are a Cubs record and nearly a third of his season total.
Let’s see how the other hitters did Wednesday…
Pedro Ramirez (CHC): 3-5, 2B, 4 R, 2 RBI, 2 SB.
Unlike Swanson, Ramirez only had success in one of the two games, going 0-3 with 2 strikeouts earlier in the day. Ramirez reached base four times on three hits and one of the Mets’ aforementioned errors, and came around to score every time. His first two at-bats vs Manaea were hard-hit balls, one for a flyout and the other for an RBI groundball single. In the sixth inning, Ramirez had a bloop double to right, followed by an eighth-inning at-bat in which he reached on an error by Bo Bichette and stole second. Ramirez’s final at-bat of the night resulted in a pop-up to right field that ended up dropping between Marcus Semien and Carson Benge for a single. Ramirez is now hitting .289/.333/.422 over his first 49 plate appearances in the majors.
Samuel Basallo (BAL): 2-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 4 RBI.
Basallo probably doesn’t take much solace in his excellent day at the plate, as the Orioles lost in extra innings to the Angels on two consecutive defensive miscues. Basallo and the Orioles were facing José Soriano in this one, and added to some of the midseason misery for Soriano, putting up 5 runs in 3 innings against the Angels’ starter. Basallo and Pete Alonso combined for four of them, with Alonso reaching via a hit and Basallo bringing him home with a big fly in both the second and third innings. Basallo’s first homer was on a high-and-away splitter, sending it out to right-center at 106.9 MPH. The homer was the first extra-base hit off Soriano’s splitter on the season. In the third inning, Basallo got a juicy, center-cut 97 MPH fastball down the pipe and crushed a line drive to right at 112.5 MPH for his second two-run homer of the night.
Paul Goldschmidt (NYY): 2-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI.
As a fellow old man with a history of bad knees and lower-back tightness, it warms my heart to see Goldy’s resurgence this year. As a fantasy manager who rosters Tarik Skubal in two leagues, I’d like him to cut me some slack, though. Goldschmidt had both of his solo homers against the Tigers’ ace, getting to a Skubal fastball in the first and a curve in the fourth. The first inning homer wasn’t particularly well-struck, leaving the bat at 95.2 MPH and at an angle such that Statcast gave it just a 14% chance of turning into a hit. Goldschmidt got all of the second one, though, turning it around at 104.9 MPH and sending it 427 feet to left. Goldschmidt might be the only batter in the majors who enjoys seeing Skubal on the schedule, as last night’s big game leaves him 7-13 with 4 homers against Skubal.
Ryan O’Hearn (PIT): 4-5, 3 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI.
O’Hearn and the Pirates’ offense added to Bryan Woo’s disappointing season, putting up five runs on the Mariners’ starter before tacking on another six vs the bullpen. As has been the case for Woo this season, the underlying stats suggested the offense should have had less success. O’Hearn’s first four batted balls were fairly softly hit, between 71.8 and 85.7 MPH, and resulted in three hits. One of those hits was a ground-rule double in the fourth inning on a soft fly to left that bounced into the stands in foul territory, putting runners on second and third before Endy Rodríguez brought them home. O’Hearn added another double in the seventh inning on a line drive to right field, bringing home two runners. His final at-bat yielded his hardest-hit ball of the night, a 101.8 MPH line drive that was just out of Luke Raley’s reach in right field.
William Contreras (MIL): 3-3, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB.
Contreras was perfect at the plate vs Rhett Lowder and the Reds’ bullpen. The Brewers’ catcher did all of his damage vs Lowder, with a base knock to left in the first inning and two scorched balls in his next two at-bats. In the third inning, Contreras sent an up-and-in sinker out to center at 103.6 MPH for a two-run homer, right before Jake Bauers added a back-to-back jack. In the fifth inning, Contreras hit one just as hard at 103.7 MPH, but at a much lower angle for a single to left field, and was stranded again. After that, in Juan Soto parlance, the Reds didn’t want to play with Contreras anymore. He was intentionally walked with one out and a runner on third in the seventh inning, a decision that did not pay off after a Bauers walk and Andrew Vaughn three-run double. Contreras walked to lead off the ninth, then was caught stealing, a bold decision to go with 13th percentile sprint speed against a lefty reliever.
José Fermín (STL): 2-3, HR, 3 R, RBI, BB, SB.
Fermín had a successful day at the plate despite the Cardinals’ loss to a Diamondbacks’ team throwing a bullpen game. Fermín’s two hits were both hard-hit balls at 99.6 and 99.8 MPH. The first was a line drive single to lead off the bottom of the fourth after the Diamondbacks had put up six runs in the top of the inning. Fermín came around to score and cut the deficit to four runs, but the Cardinals would never make it closer than that. In the ninth inning, the Fermínator turned on a middle-middle slider from Drey Jameson and took it out to left for his third homer of the season. Fermín played third, left, and center in this one, and has at least one game at every position on the diamond this year except pitcher and catcher. He’s hitting .277/.328/.402 in 123 plate appearances this year after an excellent 70 PA sample in 2025.
Wyatt Langford (TEX): 2-4, HR, R, RBI, SB.
Langford and Joc Pederson each had a solo homer in this one and were the lone bright spots for a Rangers’ offense that reached base just six times against a fresh-off-the-IL Eury Pérez and the Marlins’ bullpen. In the fourth inning, Langford got a low-and-away slider from Perez that hung up for him to send out 437 feet to left-center at 106.5 MPH. He added a 100.5 MPH line drive single in the sixth inning off Anthony Bender and stole second before being stranded there. Langford has traded walks for average and power this year; he’s swinging 5.5 percentage points more often, and has cut his walk rate in half to 6.1%. The result is a .270/.319/.480 line that is practically equally valuable to the Rangers as his 2025 (121 wRC+ vs 118 last year), but better for fantasy managers with traditional scoring categories.
Ceddanne Rafaela (BOS): 3-5, 2B, 3B, R, RBI.
Rafaela and the Red Sox got out to a quick start in Colorado. The Red Sox scored in the first, second, fourth, and fifth innings, before the bullpen capitulated and gave the Rockies an 8-6 win. Rafaela’s first at-bat was a sky-high popup down the first base line that TJ Rumfield and Willi Castro both couldn’t reel in. After a deflection off a glove, Rafaela ended up at third with what was ruled a triple. He earned his other two hits, doubling to left to lead off the third inning and rapping a 103.2 MPH RBI single through short in the fourth. The cycle was not to be, however, as Rafaela struck out against Rockies relievers in his final two at-bats.
Photo by Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire | Featured image by Ethan Kaplan (@djfreddie10.bsky.social on Blue Sky and @EthanMKaplanImages on Instagram)
