August’s Five Best Hitters
With wRC+ as our measuring stick, these five hitters have risen above the rest in the leaderboards (we’ve included a few other statistics for good measure).
The Houston Astros have maintained a comfortable lead in the American League West, and this article will help shed light on how that’s happening. Alex Bregman has a chance at recording his second straight season of 7.0-plus fWAR, and his 32 homers are already a new single-season career high. He’s found success by increasing his quality of contact (hard-hit rate has gone from 35.4% in ’18 to 44.0% so far in ’19), but his plate discipline has been terrific. Bregman’s season-long walk rate (16.6%) is four percentage points higher than his strikeout rate (12.6%).
The Boston Red Sox are on the outside looking in with regard to the AL playoff picture, but it’s not because of their offense. J.D. Martinez‘s 33 homers have already clinched a third straight year of 30-plus dingers, and similar to last year, he’s done it with a lower fly-ball rate than one would imagine (35.9%). Although his hard-hit rate is on track to drop for the second straight year, it’s still a very healthy 52.1% for this batted-ball event. Martinez’s 7.1% soft-hit rate on fly balls is also on track to be a new career-best mark.
Kyle Seager‘s offense still isn’t at the level he produced in 2016, but his 2019 fWAR (2.7) has already surpassed what he did last year (1.6) in 293 fewer plate appearances. When comparing his statistics between the first and second half, there have been some large jumps thanks to a hot August. His BABIP has gone from .221 to .304, which is likely a result of his line-drive rate going from 20.9% to 30.1%. It’ll be hard to get anything significant for him in a potential offseason trade, but the 31-year-old has at least rebuilt his value a bit.
Anthony Rendon will once again get overlooked in the National League MVP race because of Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich (who have earned the attention they’re getting). However, the Nats’ third baseman is once again just crushing the baseball. He’s been worth at least 6.0 fWAR in each of the last three seasons, and he’s already set new single-season career highs in homers (31) and RBI (109). One pitch Rendon has punished consistently in 2019 is the sinker. Although he found success against that offering last year (160 wRC+ and .948 OPS), it’s gone to another level this season (255 wRC+ and 1.371 OPS).
Looks like all Carlos Santana needed to regain his All-Star form was to be back in Cleveland with the Indians. He’s once again produced a higher walk rate (17.0%) than his strikeout rate (14.7%), but he’s paired it with a wRC+ (148) and OPS (.963) that are on track to be new career highs. In fact, the 4.6 fWAR he’s produced in 577 plate appearances has almost matched what he did from 2017-18 combined (4.8 fWAR in 1,346 plate appearances).
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