Welcome to the latest edition of my Players to Watch for the Week Ahead series as we look ahead to the week of August 5 – August 11. In this article, I like to take a look around the league and pick out some players to discuss who might be under-owned in redraft leagues, potential DFS candidates, or big names that are just flat-out hot, including Jose Ramirez and Alec Bohm.
Before we move on, let’s glance back. Josh Bell, Nolan Schanuel, and Xander Bogaerts were some hitters we were watching from last week who continued to hit. On the pitching side of things, Hunter Greene kept on dominating to the tune of a season-high 11 strikeouts, while Taj Bradley finally faltered.
Looking ahead to this week’s action, I’ve taken much more of a “streaky” approach to this week’s article with hitters on various stretches of production, plus some pitchers you might not expect to be so effective, and there’s a new closer in town. I’ve got my eye on these guys, and perhaps you should too.
You can’t say many hitters are hotter than Jose Ramirez right now. Over the last seven games, the 31-year-old has gone 10-for-26 (.385) with five home runs and 11 RBI. What’s more is that he’s scored at least one time in each of the last seven games, having crossed the plate nine times over that span. The switch-hitter recorded an RBI in five consecutive games as well heading into Sunday’s contest before driving in zero runs and bringing that streak to an end.
Cleveland has seven games in seven days this week (vs ARI – 3; @ MIN – 4) so there will be plenty of at-bats to keep stuffing the stat sheet.
Over the last nine games, Jake Burger has five multi-hit games, going 12-for-35 (.342) over that stretch. The 28-year-old has belted five home runs in that span, but what I’m watching this week is how many more consecutive games he can drive in a run. The former first-round draft pick has recorded an RBI in six consecutive games, totaling eight in those contests. He gets Nick Martinez, Nick Lodolo, and Andrew Abbott to start the week, the latter of which he’s hit a home run off of in his career.
What I’m watching: Consecutive games with an XBH
With a double in Sunday’s game, Dominic Smith now has an extra-base hit in six straight games that he’s started (he also came on as a pinch hitter in there and went 0-for-2), collecting six doubles and one home run during that timeframe. The left-handed hitter will face the Royals and Brady Singer to start the week, who he is 1-for-2 off of in his career, with the hit coming by way of the home run.
Alec Bohm is having the best season of his career by far in 2024, leading to his first All-Star selection. The 28-year-old is slashing .296/.353/.478 with a .356 wOBA and 130 wRC+, plus he leads the majors in doubles with 38. The former first-round draft pick also has the longest current on-base streak, having reached base via hit or walk in 22 straight games after belting home run No. 12 on Sunday. He starts the week facing a formidable opponent in Tyler Glasnow who he’s never faced before, but then he gets Clayton Kershaw and Gavin Stone, both of which he’s doubled off of in his career.
These hitters caught my eye when looking over batter vs. pitcher matchups. Most of these guys are already rostered in a majority of leagues, so you aren’t running out to snag them off the waiver wire, but they could be targets for your DFS lineups. While sometimes there isn’t enough matchup history worth looking at, there is frequency with these, and with frequency comes familiarity. These pitchers likely don’t have any more tricks up their sleeves versus these batters.
What I’m watching: Can he make it nine straight quality starts?
Heading into his June 16 start, Bailey Ober had a 5.13 ERA, but since then the tall righty has had one heck of a run, posting eight consecutive quality starts. He’s gone 6-1 with a 1.95 ERA and 0.74 WHIP, along with an elite 25.6% K-BB%. The catch? He faced Oakland twice, Detroit twice, the White Sox twice (the combined win percentage for those three is .371), and Seattle once (the team that strikes out the most in the majors). The only stout opponent he faced was the Phillies, but to his credit, he shut them down. Ober will draw the Guardians his next time out, the team with the best record in baseball.
It took Spencer Schwellenbach some time to adjust to the majors, as one would expect for a 24-year-old rookie, however, lately he seems to be rounding into form. Over his first six career starts, the righty allowed four or more earned runs in three of those starts, but just once over his last five. The youngster has provided the Braves with length, working into the sixth inning in each of those five starts, and he’s starting to show some swing-and-miss type stuff. The former second-round pick has struck out at least eight batters in three consecutive starts.
There aren’t many more superlatives you can use with this guy and he’s only 13 starts into his major league career. Each start reinforces the last and proves what we all presumed — that Paul Skenes is one of the best pitchers in baseball and will be for some time. In his next start, we get to see a rematch of power versus power: Skenes versus Shohei Ohtani. Skenes versus Freddie Freeman. In L.A. It’ll be must-see TV (must-see streaming?) next Saturday night.
We all knew Ben Joyce could throw hard, but the hardest throw in the pitch-tracking era? Joyce threw a 104.7 mph fastball on Saturday to close the game and pick up his first save of the season. The fireballer has been dominant after a brief two-game hiccup in mid-June, now posting 22 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings. As of this writing, he’s rostered in just 35% of Yahoo leagues, so pick him up while you can!
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