Corners Report: Max Muncy. That Funky Muncy

If you are a glasses or contact lens wearer, and you ever accidentally wore your old prescription and tried to do something, you will understand what Max Muncy was going through.

Reading street signs is a struggle. Ping pong is not an enjoyable activity. Reading can even stress the eyes.

Max Muncy, you see, got a new prescription.

And like his vision, his stats have snapped into focus. He’s doing things that he hasn’t done in years, things that I had assumed had gone the way of the dodo. In his last 30, Max has a .296/.436/.605 slash, with 8 HR. In the first month, he had 1 HR and was hitting .194. I was safely ignoring him, but I can’t anymore.

The story is fun, and the boost to your team even more so. I reluctantly buy into Max Muncy.

Here are some other surgers and slumpers from perusing the Player Rater and box scores:

Christian Encarnacion-Strand: Hey, here we go! CES came back from injury with a bang, sending three out of the park in his first 19 at bats on the season. He’s batting fourth in a solid lineup, and if you were in on him earlier, there’s no reason to stop believing. With Bryce Harper on the shelf with a Notorious Wrist Issue, here’s your replacement who could stick.

Going deeper, or as far as we can in his truncated season, CES’ bat speed has increased 2 mph from last year, but the chase rate has gone up 5 percentage points as well. It seems he’s following the Christopher Morel or Junior Caminero Rays Handbook. You know, swing as hard as you can every time. Raise that launch angle, as he has done this year, even including the beginning of the season. If he’s ever going to do it, this is what it would look like.

Yandy Diaz: Finally, the average is trending up, and since that’s the only reason to own Yandy, it seems a bit important. On the season, he’s languishing at 21st on the Rater, and even a .409 week leaves him 13th at the position. He’s a hold, though, and one that has such a long track record of success

Vinnie Pasquantino: I know I’ve written on him before, but he was my ride or die this preseason, and he’s riding. He’s up to 20th in the position ranks, and second in the past seven days, going 13-26 with 2 HR chipped in just for fun. Basically, remember he’s a slow starter next season, and enjoy the ride.

Ryan O’Hearn: The Orioles are a mess. Ryan O’Hearn, however, is not. He should have been featured earlier for sure, but I kept playing with him in Strat-O-Matic, and he only batted 6% of the time vs. lefties, and I hesitate to roster such players. Lazy, possibly, but I’m realistic in my time constraints and abilities to work platoon bats.

The lesson to learn is that these platoon things can change. O’Hearn is hitting a respectable .263 against lefties in 38 at bats, and plays often enough that you can safely roster him. Think Jonathan Aranda level stuff here, but more power. Oh my gosh, you need to check out his Statcast; it’s quite spectacular. There’s more red on it than a hallway in the Shining when the blood flood comes. To summarize, he’s smoking the ball, taking walks, and none of this is a fluke.

I’m sure he’s gone, but I had to highlight him to maintain my Razzball card and subscriber page, which you should too! Then you can just do the stuff and not read!

Royce Lewis: Darn Royce. Just when everyone highlights how bad you do last week, you then rip off a .438/.571/.563 week. Huzzah for you, now hit some HR again.

Marcelo Mayer: I’ll end with a guy who should probably had gotten the headline, but when there’s a fun story like new glasses on an old guy, I gotta run with that. But Mayer is up for Boston and is eligible at third, and we all know how desperate that position is for new, fresh faces. Unfortunately, Mayer isn’t playing full time and is more of a dynasty play/stash type if you have the room. 7 at bats in 5 games isn’t going to help, except in the deepest of leagues.

Mayer did flash power in the minors with over an .800 OPS and 9 HR, and the batting average was a not deadly .273. The pedigree and potential are there.

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone, right? Hopefully, this helped you see the landscape of the corners more clearly, and your depth perception of the positions is more accurate. Just hope it doesn’t rain, that’s really hard to do when you have glasses on!

Have a great week, and thanks for reading again!