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Not a clever name for this piece, but I'll work on it. This will be a weekly piece looking a some hitters and pitchers off to hot and cold starts:
HOT
Matt Kemp
Kemp is leading MLB in HRs, RBI, runs scored, BA and SLG. He is also third in ISO. Early season Triple Crown candidate?
Starlin Castro
Castro leads MLB in stolen bases so far with 6 and is hitting .371. Who saw that coming?
Jordan Schafer
Schafer is tied for second in MLB with 5 stolen bases thus far in the young season. Can he steal 40 bases if he can stay in the lineup?
Carlos Santana
Santana is walking as much as he is striking out so far-22.2% and has 2 HRs and 6 RBI in 28 at bats.
Chase Headley
Mr. Three True Outcome thus far as he has either walked (10), struck out (12) or homered (2) in 22 of his 40 plate appearances this season.
Max Scherzer
Scherzer owns a 14.54 strikeout per nine in his 8.2 innings of work in his 2 starts this season.
Aaron Harang
Fresh off his 13 strikeout performance on Friday night, Harang leads MLB with a 16.02 strikeout per nine rate.
The cold hitters and pitchers after the jump:
COLD
Tim Lincecum
Lincecum is starting the year very cold. as he has the worst ERA amongst starting pitchers in MLB at 12.91, but has been unlucky as his BABIP is .444 and his strand rate is just 42.3%. Both should regress to the league average at some point.
Josh Collmenter
The Trevor Bauer Watch is on as Collmenter owns the second worst ERA in MLB at 12.86, but his strand rate is just 30.6% at this point, but his BABIP-.318-is close to league average.
Shaun Marcum
Marcum has the highest swinging strike rate-18%-in all of MLB for pitchers who qualify according to FanGraphs.
Zack Greinke
Greinke leads MLB with a 0.92 FIP, yet owns a 6.75 ERA after his ugly outing vs the Cubs a few days ago. His strand rate of 42.9% is second worst in baseball thus far.
David Price
Price is walking almost as many guys - 6.75 BB/9 - as he is striking out - 7.71 K/9. That should change real soon.
Gordon Beckham
Beckham is striking out in 40% of his at bats so far. What happened to this guy?
Yoenis Cespedes
Cespedes is another Three True Outcome hitter as he has hit 3 HRs, walked 4 times and struck out 13 times amongst his 36 plate appearances.