I have no time to be wasting time on the mic, so lets get to it! Hunter Renfroe has power, like, majorly, and now in his age 25 season he’s only going to get more. If he’s available in your OPS league or you need power go get him now. Did you check? Add him? Ok, now I’ll tell you why. A first-rounder out of Mississippi State he’s Mississippi through and through, born in beautiful Crystal Springs (I’ve never been there, I have no idea if it’s beautiful…and a quick image search yields…it’s not a tourist destination unless small towns of 5,000 people with some lakes and nice foliage and gravel roads are your thing, then have at it, not that I can’t appreciate and enjoy them as well mind you). Renfroe has shown good power in the minors, hitting 21, 20, 30 homers in his past three minor league seasons to go along with 13 homers in 227 PAs between this season and the last in the bigs.
Renfroe has scuffled a little bit through late April into May so his .734 OPS isn’t looking great but he’s been hot the last couple weeks with a 1.125 OPS and four homers in that span. You know what I like best about his recent stats? A 15% walk rate, which is way higher than his career numbers of 4%; already this season even with that weaker OPS his walk rate is 7.3%, so his eye is improving, too.
Lastly, this website has the hots for him too as Grey recommended him back in November and Ralph had him as the #24 prospect going into 2017. So if you didn’t add him at the beginning of this like I told you to, go do it now. The Padres are home against the Cubs and Rockies this week.
Top OPS past 14 days (min 30 ABs as of this writing):
JD Martinez and Mike Trout are the top two in OPS The window to acquire JD closed quickly; if you’re worried about injures now would be the time to move him, I’m holding for now.
Justin Bour at #3 with a 1.44 OPS has been bopping and if he’s out there in your OPS League let me in (an over .400 AVG isn’t bad either). I’m assuming this number is going to continue to go up from the 43% ownership in Yahoo! and 42% in ESPN. He actually looks like a buddy of mine and I’m not sure if it’s cool to tell him. Now if I had a buddy like Jose Bautista, well, he would know because you have to cultivate that look. Joey Bats, one of my favorite players for the bat flip alone (though a similar bat flip this past week was total weak sauce) has finally awoken; he’s not done kids.
Rounding out the top five is a Brew Crew Stewer, Eric Sogard, hanging right there with the big boppers in OPS. He hasn’t been hitting much the last few days however he qualifies at second base, although this week he faces the Mets and then on to LA to face Kershaw and the Dodgers, so I’d leave him out there on the waiver wire but you do you. Corey Dickerson, Devon Travis, and Tim Anderson are all in the top 20. They are hitting homers but aren’t walking while striking out a lot so ride that as you need to but I wouldn’t hold onto any of them when they start slumping.
Weekly Josh Bell & Ryon Healy update:
Bell has a .989 OPS with four homers, ten runs and eleven RBIs over his past 13 games; his ownership is up to 45% in Yahoo! and 25% in ESPN, so what I’m doing is…kinda working. I like his dual eligibility in Yahoo! at OF and 1B while he only qualifies at 1B in ESPN, so probably only Freddie Freeman owners want him there, but I want him everywhere!
Healy has been more quiet with only a couple homers and a .764 but he’s going to get hot again so I’m holding but not starting him. He’s going to the Yankees and Cleveland this week.
Right now:
Going to the Dodger-Cubs game so please wish me luck trying to catch a homer. I’m not bringing my glove because I don’t own one anymore, and I’m an adult. I really want to catch it one-handed though so if you see a guy catch a homer one-handed at the Dodgers-Cubs game, it’s definitely me. Peace out suckas!
