Henry the (7th and) 8th
Henry Bolte (ATH): 3-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 4 RBI, BB, SB.
It’s been a dismal season for the Athletics. Despite standing pat at the deadline, they sit just one game ahead of the Angels for the worst record in baseball. That lead came last night, courtesy of Henry Bolte carrying the A’s offense to a rare nine-run outburst on the road, while the Angels lost at home to the Yankees. Bolte reached base in five of six plate appearances, finishing the night with a 3-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 4 RBI, BB, SB (and a HBP) line that included homers 7 and 8 and his 15th steal.
Bolte and the A’s got to Cody Bradford and the Rangers’ bullpen early, scoring multiple runs in each of the third, fourth, and fifth innings. Both of Bolte’s homers came off Bradford, leaving the bat at 108.1 and 101.9 mph. Bolte currently has a .274/.350/.389 line, good for a 104 wRC+. There’s a lot of variation under the hood, though. Bolte has basically the same contact and on-base ability against righties and lefties, but nearly all of his power comes with the platoon advantage. Seven of his eight homers have come against southpaws, while his ISO is .205 with the platoon advantage and .062 without it. Bolte is blessed with exceptional bat speed, swinging 77 mph on average, and this number doesn’t vary based on the matchup. Instead, his problems are a result of difficulty elevating the ball. He’s sitting at a 1.1-degree average launch angle that would be worst in the majors if he qualified for the leaderboard. Against lefties, his launch angle sits at 6.8 degrees, slightly above teammate Lawrence Butler for 5th-flattest in MLB. Against righties, though, he hits the ball at a -1.5 degree launch angle. His batting average and speed floor make him playable in any matchup, but in shallower leagues with daily transactions, you’d really want to prioritize him against lefties (especially at home).
Let’s see how the other hitters did Wednesday…
Alika Williams (ATH): 2-4, 2B, HR, R, 3 RBI, BB.
Williams was the other member of the A’s doing damage against the Rangers. Williams is having more success in his third try at the majors, hitting .272/.308/.432 while playing both middle infield positions for the A’s. His third homer of the season came on a slider that stayed middle-in, and Williams turned on it. He sent a line drive down the left-field line that just barely cleared the wall, bringing home Jeff McNeil. Williams doesn’t run or hit the ball particularly hard, though, so he’s still one for the waiver wire in all but the deepest of leagues.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (TOR): 3-4, 2B, HR, R, 5 RBI.
Where was this all season? Vladdy Jr. entered last night’s game with just 21 doubles, 7 homers, and a perplexing .098 ISO for a guy with 93rd percentile bat speed. The typical knock on Vlad is his launch angle, but he’s actually up to 9.2 degrees, the third-highest launch angle of his career. All four of his batted balls were in the air last night, with the homer leaving at 37 degrees and his two hits being line drives. We’re clearly never getting a repeat of 2021’s 48 homers for Guerrero, but I’d be happy to take him at a discount next year and count on a bounceback to his normal 25-30 range.
Carter Jensen (KCR): 2-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB.
Jensen got to Eury Pérez early in this one. He led off the game with his 20th homer of the season, setting the record for the most leadoff homers in a season by a Royal in the process. Jensen flew out in the second, then added his 21st homer of the season in the fourth inning. These three batted balls highlight the importance of spray angle, as they all left the bat between 104.9 and 110 mph and 23 or 24-degree launch angles. Two were pulled to right and left the field, while one went 404 feet to center for a loud out. Jensen trimmed his strikeout rate in August to a workable 25.5 percent after sitting above 38% in July. He’s got the power to start at catcher in 12-team leagues, but he’ll be a star if he can put the bat on the ball more consistently.
Freddie Freeman (LAD): 2-2, HR, R, 3 RBI, 3 BB.
Years pass, seasons turn, Freddie Freeman keeps raking. Freeman is the 13th-best first baseman according to the Fangraphs auction calculator, although at least five of the players ahead of him should be starting at other positions in fantasy lineups. Freeman hit his first home run since the Fourth of July in the first inning last night, a three-run shot to center that scored Shohei Ohtani and Tommy Edman. The Cardinals decided they’d rather not let him try again, walking him in his next two plate appearances (and again in the 8th inning). His only other trip to the plate resulted in a soft liner that he dropped into center field for a base knock. Freeman’s hitting .306/.383/.467 on the season and .373/.460/.529 over the past two weeks.
Max Clark (DET): 3-4, 3 2B, 3 R, RBI, 2 BB.
Clark and the Tigers scored 11 runs in a 12-inning victory against the Twins. Clark scored his final run of the game in the Tigers’ 5-run 12th inning, coming around to score on a bloop down the right-field line that Royce Lewis barely couldn’t chase down. His first three batted balls were fairly well-struck line drives, resulting in two doubles and a lineout. Clark was a beneficiary of a bloop double himself in the 11th inning, dropping a soft fly ball by the left-field line that Kody Clemens came up about 2 feet short diving for. Clark has a 112 wRC+ in his first taste of the majors, but his 73.4 mph bat speed suggests more power could be in the tank.
Ronald Acuña Jr. (ATL): 3-5, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, SB.
There’s no better cure for what ails you as a hitter than the Nationals’ bullpen. The only vintage Acuña we’ve seen this season has been the extensive missed time, with the Braves’ right fielder slashing just .243/.345/.416. He hit an absolute moonshot against the Nationals, though, a fly ball that left the bat at a 41-degree angle but still made it 379 feet to left. The homer was the 200th of Acuña’s career, making him the player who reached 200 HR and 200 SB in the fewest games in major league history.
Jackson Chourio (MIL): 4-6, 2B, HR, 2 R, RBI.
When you see a 20-year-old rookie hit .275/.327/.464 and put up a 20-20 season, you can be forgiven for being disappointed in essentially the same output at age 21. We do expect players to improve with more experience facing MLB pitching and as they approach their athletic peak in their mid-20s. That said, holding serve with a 112 wRC+ at 21 was still a great sign for Chourio, while the step forward has come this year. Chourio and the Brewers’ offense covered for an atypically ineffective Jacob Misiorowski, who allowed five earned runs (14.7% of his season total!) in four innings. Chourio had five batted balls between 93.6 and 109.5 mph, covering his four hits and a sharply-hit double-play ball. Small improvements to his walk rate and power output give Chourio a .287/.347/.487 line, while he’s equaled his annual home run totals of the past two years in just 101 games.
Juan Brito (CIN): 1-3, HR, R, 3 RBI, BB, SB.
Brito and the Reds beat the Padres 7-3 last night, with Brito’s first big-league homer landing in the front row of the right-field stands. Brito’s struggled in his first exposure to major league pitching, hitting just .175/.250/.298 in his first 64 plate appearances. He’s a curious prospect, with consistently low minor league batting averages despite moderate strikeout and good walk rates. He does elevate the ball pretty consistently (16.3-degree average launch angle) despite below-average bat speed, which could explain his consistently low BABIPs.
Rafael Devers (SFG): 2-3, HR, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB.
Devers and the Giants took an extra-inning contest from the Pirates last night. The Giants’ slugger crushed a 92-mph slider at the bottom of the zone in the first inning for his 32nd homer of the year. He added a single to right on a towering fly ball that had just a .010 expected average, as well as two walks. The latter walk was intentional in the 10th inning, but Devers came around to score the winning run of the game on a sacrifice fly after a Bryce Eldridge double. Devers’s poor April has been completely erased from his season line at this point; after a 47 wRC+ in April, Devers’s lowest monthly wRC+ was 128 in June.
Featured image by Ethan Kaplan (@djfreddie10.bsky.social on Bluesky and @EthanMKaplanImages on Instagram)
