It's nice to finally see Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts go on a hot streak since Fantasy owners were losing a little faith in the 21-year-old infielder following a slow start. He's batting .355 with a .565 slugging percentage and .985 OPS in his last 16 games, which has given Red Sox manager John Farrell the opportunity to move him up to second in the batting order.
It's not surprising Bogaerts is doing his best work against fastballs. He's batting .333 with a .513 slugging percentage and .396 BABIP against fastballs this season, per BrooksBaseball.net. He's also doing well with offspeed pitches, batting .316 with a .429 BABIP. Though, he's having trouble with breaking pitches, batting .143 with a .261 BABIP. Perhaps it's not too shocking to see a young hitter struggle with major-league breaking pitches, but at least he's performing well against fastballs and offspeed pitches.
Bogaerts is a special talent and should be a standout Fantasy player one day. It's encouraging to see him batting second. He should see some good pitches hitting in front of Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz. I did move him up in my rankings at shortstop and third base, and hopefully this is the start of his breakout run.