I am going to try to post one of these a week, hopefully on Tuesdays. I will take a look at some of the hot and cold hitters for the previous two weeks, or 14 days, as per Fangraphs, to see if we can catch an up-and-comer. I will provide some commentary as well.
Who's Hot
Asdrubal Cabrera, CLE-Cabrera is hitting .400-.438-.778 with 4 HRs, 10 RBIs, 12 runs and 4 SBs over the last two weeks. Carl Crawford is envious of your two week hot streak, Asdrubal. Grant Brisbee, from Baseball Nation, wrote about Asdrubal yesterday, asking whether he is underrated or THE most underrated.
Vladimir Guerrero, BAL-Vlad is hitting .426-.451-.596 with a HR, 6 RBIs and 9 runs scored in the last two weeks. I think it was just a matter of time before Vlad started hitting like we all expected, even for a 36 year old. He hits in a good hitters park, and should get back to being the Vlad that fantasy owners were looking for on draft day.
Alexei Ramirez, CHW-Ramirez is hitting .400-.444-.720 with 3 HRs, 12 RBIs and 13 runs scored. Ramirez is hitting .288-.354-.458 with 6 HRs, 23 RBIs and 28 runs scored this season, with half of those stats coming in the last two weeks.
More Hot and Cold hitters after the jump:
Matt Wieters, BAL-another Oriole on the Hot list. Wieters is hitting .364-.404-.386 in the last two weeks, with no HRs, 6 RBIs and 3 runs scored. Fantasy owners are waiting for Wieters to break out one of these years, and this might just be the year. For the season, Wieters is hitting .273-.342-.410 with 4 HRs, 25 RBIs and 15 runs scored.
Matt Joyce, TB- Joyce hit .364-.472-.841 in the last two weeks, with 5 HRs, 12 RBIs, and 13 runs. For the season, he is hitting .355-.422-.617 with 7 HRs, 24 RBIs and 28 runs scored in just 141 at bats. Wow. He is benefitting from a .410 BABIP, but is a good source of power, as he his ISO last year was .236.
Who's Not
Adam Laroche, WAS -I can't write the words I want to describe how awful Laroche has been, as I like to keep things clean, but you get the idea. Laroche hit .103-.255-.103 in the last two weeks, and was placed on the 15 day DL yesterday. Fantasy owners thanks the Nationals for doing so.
Andre Ethier, LAD-Ethier is one of the streakiest hitters in baseball. After reaching base in 37 straight games, including a 30 game hit streak, Ethier is now in a horrendous slump, hitting .128-.212-.128 in the last two weeks. He avoided the disabled list yesterday after running into the right field fence at U.S. Cellular Field on Sunday.
Dan Uggla, ATL-Uggla has always been a slow starter, as he is a career .238 hitter in April and .278 hitter in May. Well, he is going to have to get real hot to get to .278 in May, as he hit just .122-.246-.245 the last two weeks, with 2 HRs, 4 RBIs and 6 runs. One positive is that he is striking out just 22% of his at bats and walking in 12% over the same period.
Peter Bourjos, LAA-Bourjos has plenty of talent, but he just can't get on base. Bourjos hit just .050-.156-.125 with a 40% K rate. For the season, Bourjos is hitting .241-.299-.383 with 2 HRs, 10 RBIs, 22 runs and 4 SBs. His main fantasy tool is his speed, but his OBP does not give fantasy owners much comfort.
Carlos Santana, CLE-I ranked Santana as my second best catcher for 2011 and he is not performing as expected. He hit .176-.370-.324 with a HR, 3 RBIs and 5 runs scored, and for the season he is hitting .208-.345-.375 with 6 HRs, 21 RBIs and 21 runs. He is striking out in 22% of his ABs, but is owns an 18% walk rate which is excellent.
As I write this, I see that Asdrubal Cabrera homered again last night off of homer-happy starter Clay Buchholz. He is on fire. One of Fake Teams readers sold high on Cabrera and landed Hanley Ramirez. Nice deal.
Of the Ice Cold hitters, I see Uggla, Ethier and Santana improving over the course of the season, while I can see Asdrubal Cabrera and Matt Joyce coming back down to earth going forward.