Top 100 Hitters, Week 18: Holy Carp!

Matt Carpenter (up 36 spots): In his first 186 ABs: 23 runs, 7 HR, 21 RBI, .215 AVG. In his next 183 ABs: 47 runs, 19 HRs, 36 RBI, .339 AVG. End paragraph. 

There’s a few guys every week who I’m keeping a close eye on who are on the cusp of making the Top 100 Hitters list. This week the guys on the bubble are: Mallex Smith, Kole Calhoun and Ian Kinsler. Smith is looking like everything  we want Billy Hamilton to be. Like Hamilton, Smith had an eye-popping stolen base season in the minors (92  in 2014!) But Mallex is actually getting on base at a great rate (.357) this year, something Hamilton has sworn against. Mallex has all the speed of Hamilton and with opportunity could put together an amazing full season next year. I’m sure you already realized this, but Kole Calhoun was just the worst until the end of May. .162 batting average. That’s worse than some pitchers! Maybe — I don’t know. I’m pro-NL-DH. Haters gonna hate! Well Kole world got demoted and found the ghost of Babe Ruth while hitting for the Salt Lake Bees. (Beads?!) Since his return to The Los Angeles Trouts he’s hitting .302 with 27 runs, 13 HRs, 30 RBI and has even stolen 2 bases just for fun. If this pace keeps up, he’ll be rocketing up this list. Finally, Ian Kinsler has a pretty nice 20 game hot streak. He’s got 15 runs, 2 HRs, 10 RBI, 2 SBs, and a .347 AVG in that span. Now, put those numbers batting 6th behind Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts and friends. His value just got a nice shot in the arm.

Risers:

• Gregory Polanco (up 11 spots): Gregory Polanco before June 18th:: 36 runs, 9 HRs, 34 RBI, 3 SBs, .211 AVG. Since June 18th: 24 runs, 10 HRs, 25 RBI, 4 SBs, .325 AVG. End paragraph…okay not really. Apparently Polanco revamped his swing at the end of June and it has yielded the results we’ve been hoping for since Polanco was a 17 year old way back in 2009. Hopefully the kid can keep it up.

Fallers:

• Mitch Haniger (down 20 spots): Haniger’s tumble continues. Since July 1st he’s hit only 1 HR and stolen only 3 bases with a .194 AVG. This performance is a major reason why it looks like the Mariners are losing ground in the second wild card spot. Well that, and the also struggling Jean Segura.
• Ender Inciarte (down 15 spots): Inciarte hasn’t stolen a base since July 4th and hasn’t hit a HR since July 3rd. What’s that? You want more frustrating stats? In his first 40 games of the season he had 18 stolen bases. In the 61 games since he’s stolen 5. What? You want even MORE frustrating stats? In those first 40 games his OBP was .319. In the following 61 games his OBP has been .317.

New Arrivals:

• Jurickson Profar: Sometimes a guy just needs consistent ABs. After 633 at bats over 4 seasons before 2018 Profar was looking like a bust. A .229 AVG and .638 OPS didn’t look like a consensus #1 prospect. When Elvis Andrus went down with an injury on April 11th, Profar stepped in and has earned his spot in the lineup hitting .256 with 53 runs, 10 HRs, 50 RBI and 7 stolen bases. Profar is still only 25 and hopefully for him this is just the (late) start to the Hall of Fame career for Jurickson Barthelomeus Profar. (Not a typo.)
• Yonder Alonso: Yonder didn’t have much of a case to make my top 100 before June 20th. 11 HRs and a .251 AVG were pretty ho-hum. Especially after an 18 game homerless streak. In the 28 games since Yonder has upped his performance with 6 HRs and a .265 AVG. Hitting 5th behind Francisco Lindor, Michael Brantley, Jose Ramirez and Edwin Encarnacion has lead to him standing 6th in RBI among first basemen.

Top 100 Hitters

GREEN: Rising | BLUE: New Additions | RED: Falling