Sleeper hitters for Week 10 (May 25-31)
Spencer Steer is all of a sudden looking formidable at the plate, not only batting .394 (13 for 33) in his past eight games but also placing in the top 10 percent for both xBA and xSLG. Better yet, the Reds have four lefties on the schedule, against which he's batting .326 with a 1.011 OPS.
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Though the power has been lacking for Travis Bazzana so far, he's been piling up walks and stolen bases with an underlying data set strong enough to suggest he won't be eligible for this list for long. Now would be a good time to scoop him up, if only to take advantage of a favorable slate that includes five left-handers, including three from the bottom-feeder Nationals rotation.
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Casey Schmitt continues to shows he's deserving of everyday at-bats wherever the Giants can find a spot for him, batting .409 (9 for 22) with three homers in his past five games. The versatile defender is particularly adept against lefties, batting .362 (17 for 47), and he has three of those on the schedule this week.
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Brandon Marsh has far and away the best strikeout rate of his career, and it's made him into a batting average standout in the early going, with more power to come. He's not really a platoon player anymore but is still at his best against righties, and the Phillies are scheduled to face five of those this week (including bottom feeders like Griffin Canning, Walker Buehler and Roki Sasaki).
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Though he's only had a couple weeks on the job, A.J. Ewing has been everything the Mets could ask for so far, reaching base at a .432 clip with a couple steals and extra-base hits. He did sit against a left-hander recently, which maybe raises some platoon concerns, but there's only one of those as a schedule this week.
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Jake Bauers has been a surprise standout for the Brewers so far, cutting down on his strikeouts and upping his average exit velocity to deliver a .291/.360/.500 slash line. The Brewers have the second-best hitter matchups this week and no lefties on the schedule, which means Bauers shouldn't face too much interference from Andrew Vaughn.
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After a miserable start, Alec Bohm is quickly making up for lost production, entering the weekend with an 11-game hitting streak in which he's batting .405 (17 for 42) with four homers. The Phillies aren't among the five teams with the best hitter matchups this week, but they didn't miss it by much, scheduled to face some of the weakest points in the Padres and Dodgers rotations.
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Those waiting for Angel Martinez to come back down to earth have so far been met with disappointment, as he's added another four homers and three steals in the last two weeks to put him on a 28-homer, 25-steal pace. Some of the pitchers scheduled to face the Guardians this week include Zack Littell, Miles MIkolas and Brayan Bello.
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Whether filling in for Josh H. Smith at second base or Corey Seager at shortstop, Ezequiel Duran, who's playable everywhere but catcher, has gotten the job done, batting .323 (30 for 93) with three homers and two steals in his past 26 games. The Rangers have the third-best hitter matchups this week, with a seven-game slate featuring such luminaries as Tatsuya Imai, Michael Burrows, Kai-Wei Teng and Stephen Kolek.
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Even as far back as spring training, Michael Conforto has looked like an improved hitter this year, and he's begun to steal at-bats from Moises Ballesteros during the regular season with a .322/.431/.610 slash line. He's more of a deep league special because of that uncertain playing time, but with only one right-hander on the schedule, he should play enough to do damage with the most favorable hitting schedule.
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