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| E-Rod |
E-Rod Rising
With the first month of the season behind us, I
thought now would be a good time to focus on some early surprises among
hitters. Brewers slugger Eric Thames
is probably the obvious one. We all knew about his amazing numbers in
the KBO, but there was understandably some question about whether his
success would translate in his return to MLB. Well, he has answered that
with authority. Speaking of authority, Aaron Judge hits baseballs very hard. The young slugger has the hardest-hit ball (this 119.4 mph rocket off Kevin Gausman) of the StatCast era and ranks fourth in the majors in average exit velocity.
While Thames and Judge have wowed with their power exploits, the biggest surprise of the first month has been the remarkable resurgence of Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman. After posting a career-low .642 OPS last season, he was mostly off the radar in mixed leagues coming into the spring, yet here he is hitting .427/.462/.875 with 11 homers and 30 RBI through 26games . He’s the top-ranked player in Yahoo leagues going into Thursday’s action.
How is Zimmerman doing it? Well, for one thing, he’s making plenty of hard contact. He ranks eighth in the majors in average exit velocity and 19th in hard-hit percentage. Zimmerman was actually among the league leaders in average exit velocity last season, but he didn’t see the results along with it. That makes sense since nearly half of his batted balls were ground balls, but this year we have seen an uptick in line drives and fly balls. He’s earning what he’s doing right now, though obviously it’s unfair to expect anyone to maintain a .469 BABIP and a 39.3 percent HR/FB rate.
If you took a flier on Zimmerman in your draft or picked him up early off waivers, you are probably sitting pretty in your league, but I still have major concerns about his health. The 32-year-old hasn’t appeared in more than 115 games since 2013. Other fantasy owners are aware of his injury history, so he’s a tough sell, but I’d at least look into the possibility of capitalizing on his molten lava-levelstart .
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| Eric Thames |
While Thames and Judge have wowed with their power exploits, the biggest surprise of the first month has been the remarkable resurgence of Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman. After posting a career-low .642 OPS last season, he was mostly off the radar in mixed leagues coming into the spring, yet here he is hitting .427/.462/.875 with 11 homers and 30 RBI through 26
How is Zimmerman doing it? Well, for one thing, he’s making plenty of hard contact. He ranks eighth in the majors in average exit velocity and 19th in hard-hit percentage. Zimmerman was actually among the league leaders in average exit velocity last season, but he didn’t see the results along with it. That makes sense since nearly half of his batted balls were ground balls, but this year we have seen an uptick in line drives and fly balls. He’s earning what he’s doing right now, though obviously it’s unfair to expect anyone to maintain a .469 BABIP and a 39.3 percent HR/FB rate.
If you took a flier on Zimmerman in your draft or picked him up early off waivers, you are probably sitting pretty in your league, but I still have major concerns about his health. The 32-year-old hasn’t appeared in more than 115 games since 2013. Other fantasy owners are aware of his injury history, so he’s a tough sell, but I’d at least look into the possibility of capitalizing on his molten lava-level
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