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Sunday Funday Stat Leaderboard: Hayes on fire, Outman rebounding

NBC Sports
·10 min read
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Silseth worth rostering in all fantasy formats

Connor Rogers explains why Los Angeles Angels pitcher Chase Silseth is worth rostering in all fantasy formats despite an odd season.

Welcome to the Sunday Funday Stat Leaderboard. If you were following my work ahead of my transition to NBC Sports then you might know this as the Samulski Sunday Tribune. It's a new name, but if the same column with just a few sections removed since it's now FULLY FREE.

If you're new to this column, the goal is to present you with the top performers in a few key stats for this week of action. I then try to give some context to some of the names on that list, so we can begin to see just how real this hot week of production was. This way we can together decide if these are players we should be bidding on, bidding BIG on, or maybe trying to trade away or trade for.

I also have a sections of minor league leaders over the last 30 days, so we can see if there are any under-the-radar names that might be worth stashing. So far this season, those leaderboards put us onto Matt McLain , Trey Cabbage , Tanner Bibee , Bryan Woo , Nolan Jones , Maikel Garcia , Dairon Blanco , and many more weeks (sometimes months) ahead of their call-up. That can be valuable insight in redraft leagues.

With that said, let's dive into the leaders from this week. Happy Sunday!

Hitting Leaders (Week of August 7th)

Hard Hit Baseballs

  1. Ronald Acuna Jr. - ATL - 14 hard-hit baseballs (58.3%)

  2. Michael Harris II, ATL - 14 hard-hit baseballs (63.6%)

  3. Ozzie Albies , ATL - 13 hard-hit baseballs (48.1%)

  4. Austin Riley , ATL - 12 hard-hit baseballs (44.4%)

  5. Wander Franco , TB - 12 hard-hit baseballs (70.6%)

  6. Spencer Torkelson , DET - 11 hard-hit baseballs (78.6%)

  7. Carlos Correa , MIN - 11 hard-hit baseballs (68.8%)

  8. James Outman , LAD - 11 hard-hit baseballs (68.8%)

  9. Matt Olson , ATL - 11 hard-hit baseballs (58.8%)

There are five Braves among the nine hitters on this list. That's annoying for non-Braves fans. Let others have some fun.

Carlos Correa was written off by a lot of people about a week ago. People including yours truly who mentioned on the Circling the Bases podcast that, in shallower formats, you could likely drop the veteran who doesn't run, was hitting around .220, and wasn't hitting for power. Well, then this week he hit .421 with three home runs. That has bumped his season average all the way up to a whopping ,230; however, his 15 home runs are on pace to replicate his 22 home run pace from last year. Still, with no steals and just 22 home runs, Correa really needs to hit .270-.280 in order to be a fantasy asset. He could produce solid numbers the rest of the way, but I think this year will mark a major turning point in how we view him for fantasy.

James Outman burst onto the scene at the beginning of the year and then seemed to flame out. However, the 26-year-old has seemed to right the ship of late, hitting .333/.495/.507 in the second half with three home runs, 16 runs, 11 RBI, and five steals. More importantly, his strikeout rate has been just 21.2% in those 26 games while sporting a 22.2% walk rate. Obviously, this is a small sample size, but we're witnessing a young hitter with plus raw tools adjust back to major league pitching and correct a weakness that was being exposed. That's an incredibly encouraging sign for his future and his production the rest of this season.

Home Runs

  1. Pete Alonso , NYM- 4 home runs

  2. Ke’Bryan Hayes , PIT - 3 home runs

  3. Carlos Correa , MIN - 3 home runs

  4. Matt Olson , ATL - 3 home runs

  5. Kerry Carpenter , DET - 3 home runs

  6. Ten other hitters with 3 home runs, including Josh Bell , Tommy Edman , MJ Melendez , Keibert Ruiz , and Joey Gallo .

This week, Hayes hit .471 with the three home runs and 10 RBI while posting just an 11.1% strikeout rate. On the season, Hayes has career-high exit velocity and launch angle, and the highest barrel rate since his brief 2020 call-up. We've seen him spike his launch angle earlier in the year, but the production wasn't there. This recent run of success has come with a more modest increase in launch angle which likely benefits his swing more than having more aggressive lift in his approach.

It's important to keep expectations in check. Hayes, like Yandy Diaz , is not going to be a 30+ home run bat no matter how much we want it to happen because they can hit the ball hard. Their swings are just not conducive to that kind of power output. However, if Hayes emerges as a consistent 20+ home run hitter in an improving Pirates lineup, that could be a real shift in his fantasy value.

Kerry Carpenter continues to hit and is rostered in just 19% of Yahoo! leagues. Since the All star break, he has hit .313/.377/.552 with seven home runs, 16 RBI, and 20 runs scored. He really should be rostered everywhere while he's producing like this.

Stolen Bases

  1. Ha-Seong Kim , SD - 3 SBs

  2. Michael Harris II , ATL - 3 SBs

  3. Randy Arozarena , TB - 3 SBs

  4. Nick Allen , OAK - 3 SBs

  5. Ozzie Albies , ATL - 3 SBs

  6. 13 hitters with 2 SBs, including CJ Abrams , Josh Lowe , Ezequiel Tovar , Harrison Bader , and Rafael Ortega .

Nick Allen is playing every day for Oakland, and since the All-Star break, he's hitting .210 with two home runs and four steals in 21 games. Given that he won't get you a ton of runs and RBIs while hitting at the bottom of a bad lineup, he doesn't have a ton of value, but consistent playing time and a stolen base every five games will work in AL-only leagues or other deep formats.

We've seen Rafael Ortega do this before. The 32-year-old got regular at-bats for a tanking Cubs team a couple of years ago and hit .291 with 11 home runs and 12 steals in 103 games. The average has not been there with the Mets, but he has two steals this week and with Starling Marte potentially out for the rest of the season (and at least out a few more weeks), Ortega will likely have the playing time to try and produce again. You can do worse in deep formats.

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Pitching Leaders (Week of August 7th)

SwStr% (Starting Pitchers)

  1. Freddy Peralta , MIL - 30.9% SwStr%

  2. Kutter Crawford , BOS - 21.5% SwStr%

  3. Bailey Ober , MIN - 21.5% SwStr%

  4. David Peterson , NYM - 19.4% SwStr%

  5. MacKenzie Gore , WAS - 19.3% SwStr%

  6. Eury Perez , MIA - 19.2% SwStr%

  7. Gavin Williams , CLE - 19.2% SwStr%

  8. Lance Lynn , LAD - 19.1% SwStr%

  9. Pablo Lopez , MIN - 18.1% SwStr%

  10. Brandon Williamson , CIN - 18.0% SwStr%

Kutter Crawford survived one obstacle to keep his rotation spot as Garrett Whitlock was moved to the bullpen with Chris Sale returning. Another obstacle remains with Tanner Houck likely to come back in the near future; however, the Red Sox had been using Nick Pivetta in long relief before injuries forced them to move him back to the rotation. For his part, Crawford has pitched fine as a starter and has continued to post decent strikeout rates. However, if you look at his 4.52 ERA in 63.2 innings as a starter compared to his 1.66 ERA in 21.2 innings as a bulk reliever out of the pen, you can begin to see how the Red Sox might leave Pivetta in the rotation and perhaps have Crawford and Houck work in tandem when Houck is back. Just something to keep in mind when you think about Crawford's value in late August and September.

Last week I wrote about Gavin William’s next slider. I mentioned that "With the added velocity, the pitch has less vertical movement, which makes it appear as more of a bullet slider...On the season, Williams averages 83.6 mph on his slider, but he threw it 84.6 mph on July 26th and then 86.4 mph on August 1st." Well, on Monday the velocity dropped back to 85.2 mph and then Saturday the pitch was back up to 86.9 mph. But here's the thing: Monday was the best the pitch has looked.

Last Tuesday the pitch had just a 17% whiff rate and 19% CSW when it was 86.4 mph. On Saturday, he threw it just nine times with two whiffs (on five swings) and a 22% CSW. However, on Monday, he threw the pitch 20 times with a 27% whiff rate and 35% CSW. The slider has always been a solid pitch for Williams, and it's clear he's still tinkering with it, likely based on the handedness of the hitter, but I can't help thinking that the higher velocity version that pushes 87 mph is maybe not the best version of the pitch.

Saves

  1. Evan Phillips , LAD - 3 saves

  2. Emmanuel Clase , CLE - 2 saves

  3. Raisel Iglesias , ATL - 2 saves

  4. Adbert Alzolay , CHC - 2 saves

  5. David Robertson , MIA - 2 saves

  6. Jordan Hicks, TOR- 2 saves

  7. Will Smith , TEX - 2 saves

  8. Kenley Jansen , BOS - 2 saves

Jordan Hicks has been solid as the Blue Jays' closer, but Jordan Romano is nearing his return, and it's unclear how much of the saves share Toronto will give Romano when he's back. That's a situation to monitor and might be the time to trade Hicks if you're in a trading league.

MINOR LEAGUE HITTER LEADERBOARD (Last 30 Days)

  1. Luken Baker - 1B, STL- 1.336 OPS (11 HR, 38 RBI, 36.8% hard-hit rate for the season)

  2. Troy Johnston , 1B, MIA - 1.221 OPS (4 HR,18 RBI, 1 SB, 25.2% hard-hit rate for the season)

  3. Michael Busch - 3B, LAD- 1.149 OPS (12 HR, 28 RBI, 33.8% hard-hit rate for the season)

  4. Jon Singleton - 1B, HOU - 1.114 OPS (7 HR, 14 RBI, 1 SB, 35.6% hard-hit rate for the season)

  5. Sam Haggerty - OF, SEA - 1.114 OPS (5 HR, 18 RBI, 7 SB, 30.3% hard-hit rate for the season)

At this point, the Cardinals need to give Baker an extended look in their lineup. He has nothing left to prove at Triple-A, and they need to see if he can be part of their 2024 lineup. Same goes for Michael Busch in Los Angeles; unfortunately, he's blocked at 2B by Mookie Betts and at 3B by Max Muncy , so he will likely continue to just crush Triple-A pitching.

Troy Johnston is a 26-year-old having a pretty solid season for Miami, posting a .318 average across Double-A and Triple-A with 22 home runs and 17 steals. He's crushing since coming up to Triple-A, hitting .424 in 16 games with one home run and one steal. With Josh Bell in town and Jorge Soler at DH, there doesn't seem to be a path for Johnston this year.

I love this Jon Singleton story. The 31-year-old was one of the top prospects in the Astros’ organization from 2011 to ’17 after being acquired in a trade with Philadelphia. He was never able to break through into the MLB lineup and was let go after testing positive for marijuana three times and being suspended by the league. Singleton didn’t play organized baseball from 2017 to 2021, before trying to restart his career in the Mexican League. He played for the Brewers’ Triple-A team earlier this year before being released and signed back to Houston. He's now filling in for Jose Abreu who's on the IL with a back injury. I'm not sure Singleton will keep hitting massive bombs at the big league level, but I sure hope he does.

Haggerty got the call up to Seattle this week where he likely finds himself on the bench barring injuries. He has produced decent numbers in spurts before, but I'm not convinced he gets the opportunity this year.
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