Who's Hot/Who's Not Week 5
Stats are for the time period of August 20th to August 28th.
Manny Machado (3B San Diego Padres)
5 HR 10RBI
.556 BA
1.896 OPS
Statcast: xBA 91st percentile, xwOBA 87th, xSLG 85th, Barrel% 82nd.
Analysis: Machado's stats are pointing to his 2016 season which is arguably his best. This streak included 3 homers in yesterday's doubleheader. Even his outs are being hit hard with a 110MPH lineout to a Card Swap autograph favorite Abraham Toro. He grabbed NL Player of the Week for last week and even hit a go ahead homer in the 8th inning.
Brandon Belt (1B/OF San Franciso Giants)
.571 BA
1.640 OPS
Statcast: Barrel% 99th percentile, Hard Hit% 97th, xSLG 96th, xwOBA 93th, Whiff% 44th
Analysis: Up until August 15th, Belt was struggling. He pulled into that day with a .132 BA and a .469 OPS. Ever since then, Brandon has been on a tear with this past week being his best. Belt has always hit the ball well for his career, but this was the best week of his career. To highlight this run, he had a 4/5 game with 5RBI's back on Wednesday.
Clayton Kershaw (P Los Angeles Dodgers)
13 IP
.69 ERA
.170 BAA, .485 OPS
Statcast: K% 86th percentile, xERA 84th, xwOBA 83rd
Analysis: Kershaws last two games have been Cy Young worthy, striking out 11 in one and shutting out the Giants in 6IP his following start. His Statcast numbers aren't favorable and are in fact the worst since Statcast's inception in 2015. I would expect these past two starts to be the best of the year.
Mike Trout (CF Los Angeles Angels)
.185 BA
.609 OPS 10SO
Statcast: K% 27th percentile, xBA 74th, Whiff 76th, Everything else top 90th percentile
Analysis: This is classified as an "off week" for most players, but for the best position player in baseball, this is a drought. His strikeouts have increased by 7% and his xBA this year is 20 points off his career. He's also hitting the ball softer than normal as well. With this being said, the Statcast numbers are there for him to pull out of it, so I wouldn't expect this to last much longer.
Christian Yelich (RF Milwaukee Brewers)
.148 BA
.578 OPS, .167 BAbip
Statcast: Whiff% 11th percentile, K% 12th, xBA 57th, Hard Hit% 96th, Exit Velo 97th
Analysis: Yelich is having a bit of bad luck. Most of his hard hits (100mph+ ) are groundballs right now, meaning his launch angle must be lower than normal which is true. His LA from last year was 11.3 degrees and this year is 7.5.He's also not squaring the ball up as well as he had in previous years, even though barrel % in the 73rd percentile isn't bad. Compounding these factors with striking out can easily tank your numbers.
Joey Gallo (LF Texas Rangers)
.087 BA
.247 OPS,
12 SO in 25 PA
Statcast: Whiff% 2nd percentile, K% 3rd, xBA 13th, xwOBA 53rd, Exit Velo 80th, Barrel% 92nd
Analysis: We may have to chalk this season up as a loss at this point for Gallo. This is the second time he's made the not list this year, and this may be just a normal trend of his for this shortened season. Across almost every category (minus LA), Gallo is down. He is putting the barrel to the ball, but the aforementioned LA has increased by 5 degrees causing more popups.
Chicago White Sox:
Lucas Giolito - 16IP, 13:1 K:BB, No hit the Pirates, .059 BAA, .153 OPS, .120 BAbip,
Dallas Keuchel - 14IP, 1.93 ERA, .196 BAA, .244 BAbip
Jose Abreu - .500 BA, 7HR, 13RBI, 2.014 OPS
Eloy Jiminez - .500 BA, 3HR, 7RBI, 1.538 OPS, .500 BAbip
Analysis: Lucas Giolito had the honors of grabbing the first no-no of the year against the Pirates. Giolito had a difficult start to his career two years ago but has turned the corner in 2020 topping the top 25% in almost every category. Keuchel saw a hot week as well with two solid starts. His numbers aren't as favorable, but batters have a difficult time squaring up his pitches (79th percentile in EV). Abreu had an insane week cracking 6 homers in 3 games versus the Cubs while hitting 4 in consecutive at bats. After celebrating the no hitter, Eloy landed aqkardly on his ankle and was questionable to start the next game. Not only did he start the next game, he hit a homer 466 feet. The White Sox are 3rd in runs scored, 1st in homers, 1st in OPS, and 4th in ERA and are here to stay. Oh yea, I didn't even mention Luis Robert either.