Hitters Ranked 25th Through 13th
A Second-Half Drop-Off…Again
When the Los Angeles Dodgers were struggling at the start of 2018, Matt Kemp was one of the few bright spots. His first-half performance was All-Star worthy, slashing .310/.352/.522 with 15 home runs and 60 RBI in 324 plate appearances. As LA started to catch fire en route to winning another NL West title and NL pennant, their early-season firecracker fell off the map.
In 182 plate appearances following the mid-summer classic, Kemp slugged just six home runs. After posting a 137 wRC+ and .212 ISO in the first half, those numbers dropped drastically to 97 and .152, respectively. If you’re thinking this progression sounds familiar, it’s because something similar happened the year before with the Atlanta Braves.
After one half of play in 2017, he owned a 111 wRC+ and .826 OPS, only to watch those numbers settle in at 72 and .688, respectively, in the second half.
Trending Back Up?
With an 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs and a lackluster overall performance when actually on the field, 2017 was a complete wash for Starling Marte. Although his actual reputation may never be the same, he did his best to get his on-field production back to where it was.
He actually enjoyed his first 20-homer season, and made it a 20-20 occurrence thanks to collecting 33 steals. This helped engineer a 3.7-fWAR season, the fifth time he’s been worth at least three wins in the past six years. Marte also accomplished this despite a 50.7% ground-ball rate and 36.1% chase rate, both of which were among the highest in baseball for qualified hitters.
The Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder didn’t hit many fly balls, but he made the most of the ones he got in the air. All 20 of his homers came from this batted-ball event, as his .557 ISO, 182 wRC+, and 46.9% hard-hit rate were all the highest they’ve been since 2015 (.650, 215, and 48.0%, respectively).
At Least He’s Consistent
Nomar Mazara has been around for three big-league seasons, and as a 23-year-old, he still has a lot of growing to do (at least, the Texas Rangers hope so). To this point, though, you can basically pencil the outfielder in for a certain level of production.
He’s hit exactly 20 homers in each of his first three seasons, along with scoring between 59 and 64 runs, producing a BABIP between .290 and .299, and registering a wRC+ between 89 and 96. One would’ve hoped for some more steps forward so far, but this is better than going backwards.
Mazara has increased his hard-hit rate substantially with each season (28.7% to 32.6% to 37.5%), but his line-drive rate has gone on a similar decline. That’s also led to career-worst marks in ground-ball rate (55.1%) and fly-ball rate (26.6%). For a player with just three career stolen bases and a cumulative BsR of -6.6, that’s not necessarily a recipe for success.
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