Sleeper hitters for Week 20 (Aug. 3-9)
Ty France has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball over the past month-plus, batting .376 (41 for 109) with eight home runs in his past 30 games, so he's almost too obvious of a recommendation with the Padres having the most favorable hitter matchups. The trick is whether you can fit another first baseman in your lineup.
| ||
A.J. Ewing has really settled in over his past 33 games, batting .273 (35 for 128) with five homers and seven steals, and probably shouldn't be available in as many leagues as he is. There's nothing special about the Mets' matchups this week, but since they're not exactly prohibitive, no need to overthink it.
| ||
The waiver wire is looking pretty bleak, to be honest, which is why I'm going back to the Bryce Eldridge well even though he's been quiet in July and the Giants' matchups are middle of the road this week. His data set is still strong enough that I wouldn't want to shy away from him in favor of some scrub on the waiver wire.
| ||
Once again, the recommendation here is less about the matchups than the hitter himself. Heriberto Hernandez has 14 homers and an .887 OPS in 47 games since the start of June and might be the most under-rostered hitter in all of Fantasy.
| ||
Bryson Stott has also been swinging a hot bat since the start of June, which is long enough that it may not be just a hot streak. Of course, he has only two home runs during that stretch to go along with a .286 (53 for 185) batting average and nine stolen bases, so the upside is pretty limited. You can trust him to maximize it with the Phillies' second-ranked hitter schedule, though.
| ||
Jackson Holliday has been piling up multi-hit games recently for a .417 batting average in his past 11 games, though only two of his 15 hits during that stretch have been for extra bases (both doubles). There isn't compelling evidence yet that he's broken through, but the matchups are favorable enough for him to sustain this hot streak, hopefully, featuring pitchers like Grayson Rodriguez, Ryan Johnson, Kumar Rocker and Cal Quantrill.
| ||
Enough with the matchup plays. I'm back to pointing out hitters who are simply under-rostered during this sad week for waiver wire pickups. The Rockies have a home series and an away series, with middling matchups across the board, but Cole Carrigg has sustained a quality slash line during his brief stay in the bigs and is batting .381 (16 for 42) in his past 13 games.
| ||
The Phillies have a slate full of mashable pitchers like Zack Littell, Jake Irvin, Max Scherzer and Shane Bieber, so I need to identify someone other than Bryson Stott who could take advantage. Why not Alec Bohm, who has an OPS about 200 points better at home, which is where all seven of the Phillies' games are this week?
| ||
How thin is my reasoning getting for these hitter recs? The Tigers actually have one of the worst hitter schedules for this week, but Max Clark is coming off a strong weekend debut, collecting three extra-base hits and drawing three walks. There isn't a single lefty on the schedule either, which should theoretically help a left-handed hitter like him.
| ||
Ryan Waldschmidt actually has looked a lot better since returning from the minors, batting .385 (15 for 39) and hitting the ball 90.2 mph on average, but because he hasn't been playing quite every day, I can only rank him 10th here even with the Diamondbacks having the third-best hitter matchups. It helps that three of the seven pitchers on tap are lefties, against whom he has a .350 batting average and .870 OPS.
|
