Burning And Freezing Outfielders: We All Have As Many Steals As Chandler Simpson This Month

It’s mid-June already, and with the NHL and NBA done (The Knicks!!!), we’re down to just one of the four major sports in action until September. Ok, yes, there’s that World Cup thing going on, but we’re mostly down to just baseball. So how about a return of our game “Who’s Hot and Who’s Not, Outfielder Edition. Let’s look at some OF eligible guys who are scorching over the last 30 days in wRC+ terms and some who may have found their way onto Fantasy rosters and are just not. Stats are for 30 days through Sunday and HR, Runs, RBI’s, Steals

On Fire (Rostered Everywhere)

James Wood 208 wRC+, .359, 8, 30, 17, 6

Yordan Alvarez 202 wRC+, .333, 10, 20, 24, 0

Juan Soto 189 wRC+, .319, 9 , 18, 20, 5

Pete Crow-Armstrong 181 wRC+, .314, 8, 18 , 15, 5

Jackson Chourio 178 wRC+, .330, 9, 24, 23, 4

Yeah, you’ve gotten what you’ve paid for lately from these guys. And then some. With Wood, you have to wonder and worry whether he has a second-half swoon like he did last year, when his K rate exploded. There’s no sign of that right now as he’s got a K% of 24.8% over the last month, which is perfectly fine when paired with his power and his BB% of 16.8%.

Yordan continues to mash and might win the real-life Triple Crown. He’s also now fully OF eligible in all formats! PCA and Soto have games that look absolutely nothing alike, as one has lightning speed and plays elite CF, and the other…well, he has neither. But their stat line over the last month is virtually identical. Chourio’s is similar too, but with higher counting stats as he’s the only one of the three on a good team apparently

On Fire, And Who Saw Some of These?

Jung Ho Lee 207 wRC+, .480, 0, 17, 8, 3

Blaze Alexander 193 wRC+, .393, 2, 9, 14, 3

Tyler Soderstrom 188 wRC+, .319, 7, 11, 19, 0

Tristan Peters 181 wRC+, .338, 3, 11, 13, 0

Heriberto Hernandez 175 wRC+, .333, 6, 10, 15, 2

When Jung came into the league a couple years ago, he did profile as a Stephen Kwan sort of profile. Well, at least the earlier version of Stephen Kwan that hit for average, stole a bit, and could maybe get you 10 homers, Jung’s numbers here are on just 77 PA’s as he was on the IL in the early part of the past month. But he’s on a real heater as you can see…he’s only whiffed on one of those 77 PA’s. Unfortunately, his pop is very limited as he has just 3 homers on the year and 13 total in 1038 MLB PA’s. And he doesn’t run enough either, with just 15 career steals. He’s a lesser version of his now teammate, Luis Arraez. If you need Avg sure, try to pick him up, he might be out there in shallower formats. 

Blaze does actually have an 81st percentile sprint speed, so I can’t make any jokes about his name. He just doesn’t run all that frequently with 7 steals on the year and 14 in his 621 career PA’s. Statcast does think his production this year is real, as he has a .354 xwOBA vs. .342 wOBA on the season, thanks to an excellent 92.6 EV. Meanwhile, he’s cut the K% from 32.3% last year to 22.9% this year. And he’s eligible all over the field. There’s a lot to like. But on the flip side, he only has a 5.9% Barrel%, so you’re not getting much pop. And he’s not an everyday player as he’s started just 6 of the last 10 vs. righties. He’s worth rostering in deep leagues if for no other reason than he’s good and you can slot him in for any injured guy. But he doesn’t do enough to bother with in shallower formats.

Soderstrom is probably already rostered most everywhere, but I kept him in this group since he’s not quite Elite Tier. He clearly would be if he could play all season outdoors in Vegas! In his six games in the desert last week, he hit .381 with 4 homers and 9 RBI’s and a .611 wOBA. The good news is his home park in Sacramento is a hitters’ haven as well, so hopefully he can keep this run up.

Peters is somewhat interesting, not only because he’s a former Savannah Banana (seriously). He’s hitting .294 on the year with 4 steals on a good lineup. Unfortunately, he’s purely a platoon bat, especially now that Everson Pereira is back from the IL. He has just 19 PA’s vs. lefties this year and has just 2 singles and a -45 wRC+ to show for them. Deep formats only here, and only usable on weeks with lots of righties.

Think I saved the best for last, as Hernandez is the most interesting of the bunch. He spent a little time in AAA this year and a lot as just a short-side platoon guy, but he’s in the process of shedding that. He’s started 3 straight vs. righties, and 5 of the last 7 overall. And he’s on absolute fire. I tried to get him in deep league FAAB, but was only successful in 1 of 7. His Steamer 600 projection has him at 20 homers and 9 steals per 600 PA’s, but just a .222 Avg with a 30% K%. He’s definitely interesting, we’ll see

Cold as Ice

Chandler Simpson 31 wRC+, .190, 0, 9, 3, 0

Dylan Crews 56 wRC+, .193, 3, 10, 10, 2

Chase DeLauter 60 wRC+, .226, 1, 8, 8, 2

Sal Frelick, 71 wRC+, .234, 0 , 7, 13, 4

Simpson was a risky play to begin with. At best, you were getting a big steals and Avg plus and perhaps a wash in runs. He has literally 0 power, might lose PA’s to platoons, and also played a bad OF last year. Well, he’s now an 85th percentile fielder, slumping at the plate big time. And zero steals in over a month! He’s absolutely unplayable now, there are always steals on the wire,

Crews at least gives Fantasy juice with his lousy average, he has just 88 PA’s so far. Also, he’s a bit unlucky as he has a .268 xBA. I’m rolling with him all over.

DeLauter got off to a hot start but has been a bit cold for a while now. It’s the old story of the pitchers adjusting to the rookie, and now the rookie has to adjust back. It might not happen now as he’s injured, though not on IL (yet).

Frelick is just mediocre and starting to lose PA’s. He’s only started 3 of the last 7 games as the Brewers look to get both Jake Bauers and Andrew Vaughn in the lineup. I’d move on in all formats. Frelick’s 12 homers last year were a nice boost as he’s in that Jung-Kwan bucket. But it might turn into an outlier as he has 3 this year and just 5 steals.