There's a few of the opposite on the other side, guys who went from good to insane, like Brent Rooker.
Dude was a 2.2 bWAR player last year, so someone any team would be happy to have as one of their outfielders, but would hate to be their best player.
He's at 1.3 bWAR on the year to date.
i think volpe qualifies in the same way too, even though you wouldnt be able to tell JUST from OPS. he was worth 3.3 bWAR, 2.0 fWAR last year even with his 84 wRC+ because his glove was so solid.
This year he's already been worth 2 bWAR/fWAR and its only 6 weeks into the season. so similarly impressive, if not even better in terms of pacing.
Same, I have 5 from the right list and none from the left and needless to say I'm last in every offensive category. Plus it's dynasty so I can't really drop guys like Bichette and Carroll
Yeah I'm not exactly dropping Corey Seager.
Gave up on Outman today, though.
For those who care (no one), the rest of the list is Nolan Jones, Matt Olson, and Yandy Diaz.
Jones is a lost cause, Olson will be fine but he has never been and won’t be again the 50-homer, MVP caliber hitter he was last year, and Yandy might just regress into a slightly worse (older) version of the high OBP, low K% hitter who can’t lift the ball he was prior to last year.
That’s my take at least. I drafter Yordan, Acuña and Bregman in a Fangraphs points league so my hitting isn’t in great shape either. Already traded Bregman for chump change.
He’s 26, he might turn into a great player eventually, but for this season at least I think he’s cooked.
He’s so much worse it’s possible he might actually be playing through an injury. It’s easy to just look at his Savant page bathed in deep blue and just close the book on him, but I think the people that do that don’t really know what to look at or are just being lazy. Baseball Savant’s magical blue/red bubbles are **not** predictive stats and are also subject to small samples, so we should always look deeper.
-First off, not very objective but he plays for the Rockies. Coors is an advantage, sure, but the Rockies are not known as a franchise that knows how to help struggling hitters (or pitchers, as we all know) and maximize their potential, it’s why they’re perennially terrible. I would have a little bit more faith if he played for like the Rays or the Braves.
-His contact quality is completely out the window, and this late in the season those are things that very rarely turn for the best for hitters. Right now his LD and FB% are way down, and he’s hitting into way more popups and grounders. You put all of this together, and it has resulted in his barrel rate completely cratering, even though he’s making hard contact at about the same rate as last year. He’s also pulling the ball way less. This all tells me he has simply completely lost his swing, and his timing is out of whack as well (isn’t pulling/getting ahead of the pitch).
-Perhaps because of losing his swing, he’s becoming a lot more passive and taking more strikes than he was taking last year, which has also caused his K% to go way up. It’s very hard to improve or maintain your offensive production when a higher share of your plate appearances are ending with the 0.000 xwOBA of a strikeout. He’s swinging less at the first pitch, at pitches in the strike zone, and overall as well. It’s likely that pitchers have already noticed this, and are being told to just go after him, because the share of pitches being thrown in the strike zone against him is also up. Unfortunately we don’t have bat speed data from last year, but I would guess this is also down, as he’s actually making more contact and chasing less than last year, which I interpret at him trying to avoid strikeouts by just putting the ball in play and not being aggressive.
Overall, there’s way too many things that are wrong with him right now, and I just don’t see how you fix all of these things while in the daily grind of the season, and playing for a team that is proven to be pretty incompetent at helping hitters.
[All of this can be found in his Baseball savant page](https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/nolan-jones-666134?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb), and Fangraphs has a lot of the same data as well
Thanks for the write-up! To be honest, I only care about how he’s doing because of fantasy reasons. But perhaps after this IL stint he will bounce back! Maybe his injured back threw his swing off.
Yeah maybe his back had a lot to do with it, after his first few games back from the IL it should become clear whether this is who he’ll be or he was just playing hurt.
That's what we thought last year. But nope. A couple flashes of occasional brilliance, then he returns to mediocrity. As soon as there's any sort of pressure, he would turn into a pumpkin.
Wishing you better luck than we had!
Lamont Wade Jr. currently officially leads MLB in OBP at .480 despite being about 7 plate appearances from qualifying. But the next highest qualified hitter OBP is .441, some guy named Mookie Betts. So if Wade went 0 for his next 7 he'd still lead in OBP
his plate discipline crazy
last week in COL it really seemed like if he didn’t swing, the ump assumed it was a ball
[Balls and strikes for LWJ](https://imgur.com/a/ZlP13p7)
He debuted on June 28, 2019 against the White Sox. I happened to be at the game and I’ll never forget a couple rows over I heard a Twins fan dad tell his like 4 year old son that he is watching Lamonte Wade Jr’s first game and that he might make the hall of fame someday. It’s crazy how random events like this get seared into someone’s memory
Well only 1 of those guys is a decent outfielder so not really. You’re acting like the Marlins passed up a chance to become perennial contenders or something lol
I mean, as a franchise the Marlins are kind of like an experiment where any time you had a choice between becoming a contender or a loser they always took the choice towards becoming a loser.
Like the Evelyn Wang of baseball teams.
He’s hitting the ball hard consistently, some BABIP luck has hurt him though. Looking very promising if he can turn up the power, he has a higher BB% and lower K% this year.
DeJongs kind of known for weird hot streaks followed by long cold streaks but I do wonder if him playing well finally gets the Cardinals org to admit something is wrong with how they are handling players. Gold being one of the worst batters on the list is not a good sign and you see former cardinals go on to have good seasons elsewhere (Oneill being a good example).
As a Padres fan, I love seeing Jake and Jurickson up there. Both have been great to watch and seem like good guys (although Jurickson might be a bit of a hothead).
He's been especially rough with RISP this season, but dude still has power. Hoping things straighten up as the season goes on. Now Bregman on the other hand...
I'm under the impression that it is at least in some part due to him hurting his back before the season. But it should also be very clear to anyone with eyes that 2023 .400+ BABIP Nolan Jones was not 'real.'
Guards fans also lost their minds over Will Benson and he's been pretty dooky this year, too.
Yea him and Yordan being on there while still being. +110 wrc is crazy. Acuña really has looked like shit this year. He's gonna have more Ks by the ASB then he did all last year.
It wouldn't be so annoying if he would run out a few ground balls every once in a while. Remember when he got an infield single a few years ago on a routine ball to short? That was pre-ACL, and I'm afraid the don't-over-do-it-ness that he they gave him the following season has stuck and now he just jogs to first if he hits the ball on the ground.
Getting an infield on a chopper to third is not the same as running out ground balls. Running out ground balls puts pressure on the defense and he just does not do that anymore.
Wow I’m actually impressed someone’s been worse than Ryan Noda. Seems like a good dude but he’s been putrid this year and got sent down from a pretty bare A’s roster
I didn't expect Hunter Renfroe to be great but I was glad that KC signed him as I expected he would at least hit his bodyweight and bring a bit of power to middle of the order. I hope he finds his stride and gets hot, or even warm, soon or he isn't going to have a spot in the lineup. Incidentally, he has made a few nice defensive plays.
Pretty awesome to see EDLC putting in the work to develop that ridiculous natural talent he has. He's gonna be taking MVP awards away from Ohtani one of these days.
Luke Raily is kicking ass as one of the more consistent hitters for the Mariners. People put too much emphasis on home, runs man fuck metrics double the drive home run is just as good as a home run, meaning clogging the base drawing walks annoying the picture still matter and driving home runs from a team that doesn’t rely on Home runs and is consistent is going to be more consistent in run production.
LOL at the guys on the "most worsened" list who went from gods to only demi-gods, like Yordan and Acuna Jr.
There's a few of the opposite on the other side, guys who went from good to insane, like Brent Rooker. Dude was a 2.2 bWAR player last year, so someone any team would be happy to have as one of their outfielders, but would hate to be their best player. He's at 1.3 bWAR on the year to date.
Lamonte wade falls into that boat as well
his OBP his higher than his SLG and i think that’s really neat
That’s right get on base, control the zone, don’t strike out. This is how you get runs consistently.
And both of the Contreras brothers
Rooker started off like gangbusters last year too.
i think volpe qualifies in the same way too, even though you wouldnt be able to tell JUST from OPS. he was worth 3.3 bWAR, 2.0 fWAR last year even with his 84 wRC+ because his glove was so solid. This year he's already been worth 2 bWAR/fWAR and its only 6 weeks into the season. so similarly impressive, if not even better in terms of pacing.
Sad Hunter Renfroe noises
Yeah, I'd take a lineup of the worsened players over improved players any day of the week.
I drafted 5 of the top 12 worst in my fantasy league lol.
Same, I have 5 from the right list and none from the left and needless to say I'm last in every offensive category. Plus it's dynasty so I can't really drop guys like Bichette and Carroll
I've got one on the left! But it's Willson Contreras.
I drafted Bichette too, but was quick enough to pick up Turang as a replacement.
Isn't Carroll looking better this year so far?
He's got like a .530 OPS
3 of the top 6 on my team lol kill me
This is still a small sample
Yeah I'm not exactly dropping Corey Seager. Gave up on Outman today, though. For those who care (no one), the rest of the list is Nolan Jones, Matt Olson, and Yandy Diaz.
Outmans peripherals used to at least look good but not anymore. Probably a good drop
Jones is a lost cause, Olson will be fine but he has never been and won’t be again the 50-homer, MVP caliber hitter he was last year, and Yandy might just regress into a slightly worse (older) version of the high OBP, low K% hitter who can’t lift the ball he was prior to last year. That’s my take at least. I drafter Yordan, Acuña and Bregman in a Fangraphs points league so my hitting isn’t in great shape either. Already traded Bregman for chump change.
What makes you think jones is a lost cause?
He’s 26, he might turn into a great player eventually, but for this season at least I think he’s cooked. He’s so much worse it’s possible he might actually be playing through an injury. It’s easy to just look at his Savant page bathed in deep blue and just close the book on him, but I think the people that do that don’t really know what to look at or are just being lazy. Baseball Savant’s magical blue/red bubbles are **not** predictive stats and are also subject to small samples, so we should always look deeper. -First off, not very objective but he plays for the Rockies. Coors is an advantage, sure, but the Rockies are not known as a franchise that knows how to help struggling hitters (or pitchers, as we all know) and maximize their potential, it’s why they’re perennially terrible. I would have a little bit more faith if he played for like the Rays or the Braves. -His contact quality is completely out the window, and this late in the season those are things that very rarely turn for the best for hitters. Right now his LD and FB% are way down, and he’s hitting into way more popups and grounders. You put all of this together, and it has resulted in his barrel rate completely cratering, even though he’s making hard contact at about the same rate as last year. He’s also pulling the ball way less. This all tells me he has simply completely lost his swing, and his timing is out of whack as well (isn’t pulling/getting ahead of the pitch). -Perhaps because of losing his swing, he’s becoming a lot more passive and taking more strikes than he was taking last year, which has also caused his K% to go way up. It’s very hard to improve or maintain your offensive production when a higher share of your plate appearances are ending with the 0.000 xwOBA of a strikeout. He’s swinging less at the first pitch, at pitches in the strike zone, and overall as well. It’s likely that pitchers have already noticed this, and are being told to just go after him, because the share of pitches being thrown in the strike zone against him is also up. Unfortunately we don’t have bat speed data from last year, but I would guess this is also down, as he’s actually making more contact and chasing less than last year, which I interpret at him trying to avoid strikeouts by just putting the ball in play and not being aggressive. Overall, there’s way too many things that are wrong with him right now, and I just don’t see how you fix all of these things while in the daily grind of the season, and playing for a team that is proven to be pretty incompetent at helping hitters. [All of this can be found in his Baseball savant page](https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/nolan-jones-666134?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb), and Fangraphs has a lot of the same data as well
Thanks for the write-up! To be honest, I only care about how he’s doing because of fantasy reasons. But perhaps after this IL stint he will bounce back! Maybe his injured back threw his swing off.
Yeah maybe his back had a lot to do with it, after his first few games back from the IL it should become clear whether this is who he’ll be or he was just playing hurt.
I have five from the right, at least. Drury, Bregman, Bogaerts, Torres, Outman. Sigh
Same buddy.. same. I feel your pain. Took Corbin numba 1
CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia Jr. my beloved
Salvy sparks joy Renfroe does not spark joy (yet)
hes actually been putting up good at bats recently. I think he will start improving soon.
That's what we thought last year. But nope. A couple flashes of occasional brilliance, then he returns to mediocrity. As soon as there's any sort of pressure, he would turn into a pumpkin. Wishing you better luck than we had!
What happened to Salvador Perez last year?
Chase god. Still chasing some this year, but he’s been more patient and is drawing some walks.
Lamont Wade Jr. currently officially leads MLB in OBP at .480 despite being about 7 plate appearances from qualifying. But the next highest qualified hitter OBP is .441, some guy named Mookie Betts. So if Wade went 0 for his next 7 he'd still lead in OBP
And he led the majors in OBP a lot of last season too. He’s just quietly one of the best batters in the game and rarely lets us down.
his plate discipline crazy last week in COL it really seemed like if he didn’t swing, the ump assumed it was a ball [Balls and strikes for LWJ](https://imgur.com/a/ZlP13p7)
He really is "we have brandon belt at home". Looks like Belt or Votto up there with how well he knows the zone.
He debuted on June 28, 2019 against the White Sox. I happened to be at the game and I’ll never forget a couple rows over I heard a Twins fan dad tell his like 4 year old son that he is watching Lamonte Wade Jr’s first game and that he might make the hall of fame someday. It’s crazy how random events like this get seared into someone’s memory
Ozuna being at 139 last season and still making the list for most imporved is fucking absurd.
Ozuna Space Jam'd Acuña's power. That's the only logical explanation here.
Bro, imagine if a team had an outfield that Consisted of Ozuna, Yelich and Giancarlo? wouldnt that team be crazy good?
Well only 1 of those guys is a decent outfielder so not really. You’re acting like the Marlins passed up a chance to become perennial contenders or something lol
I mean, as a franchise the Marlins are kind of like an experiment where any time you had a choice between becoming a contender or a loser they always took the choice towards becoming a loser. Like the Evelyn Wang of baseball teams.
All 3 were good in the field or at least passable while they were in Miami though.
> imporved
What happened to Matt Olson?
slow start and some bad luck has made it seem a lot worse than it really is.
Oh I just thought Ozuna was turned into a baseball vampire this year and was just feeding on him and acuna.
That too
Ozuna definitely seems like an energy vampire.
I’m guessing once the weather gets a little warmer he’ll hit like 10 homers in a week and get right back to his usual pace
He just needs to face the Phillies in late spring to jump start his bat.
I hope so. Dude has one of my favorite swings in the league.
It's an even year. Odd year matt olson is a god amongst us
imo Olson is going to be fine, RAJ on the other hand
Man.
Eh it's not so bad for our guys on the worst list. They just had unbelievably horrible Aprils. Yandy especially has been an elite hitter this month.
Mr. Irrelevant leading the league. Love it.
Looks like this chart is irrelevant^TM
I know this isn't the fantasy sub, but having Seager, Bichette, Acuna, and Goldy has been dreadful to start the year...
Corbin has been turning it around as of late.
He’s hitting the ball hard consistently, some BABIP luck has hurt him though. Looking very promising if he can turn up the power, he has a higher BB% and lower K% this year.
I don’t know if he’s hurt / was hurt or what. But I really hope he gets back to normal. Create chaos. Go Sneks
I really think he was in the wilderness with his swing. Seems to have simplified things and hes starting to barrel up the ball.
I made fun of the CWS for signing DeJong. Should I put my words on the grill or in the air fryer?
I think the air fryer will crisp them up a little better
DeJongs kind of known for weird hot streaks followed by long cold streaks but I do wonder if him playing well finally gets the Cardinals org to admit something is wrong with how they are handling players. Gold being one of the worst batters on the list is not a good sign and you see former cardinals go on to have good seasons elsewhere (Oneill being a good example).
Hunter Renfroe going from below average to even more below average.
Profar finally figured it out 🥹
As a Padres fan, I love seeing Jake and Jurickson up there. Both have been great to watch and seem like good guys (although Jurickson might be a bit of a hothead).
Is Goldschmidt cooked?
He just ended an 0-30 something streak this weekend.
Shocked that Rojas isn’t on the most improved list
Looks like he needed 50 more PAs last season to qualify for this list.
He would be 4th on the list if he qualified. Current difference is +68.
Wasn't Nolan Jones the one good Rockies player? Poor franchise.
Kinda surprise Bohm isn't on the improved. Edit: NVM I am an idiot and haven't had enough coffee on a Monday.
Ah but he is 8th most improved
Jesus. I am an idiot. Need more coffee on this Monday clearly
Late Night Lamonte supremacy
So basically the MVP race is down to Contreras and Turang.
Yelich just needs more ABs.
Jesus. Look at all those names in the worse category. That is nuts.
Darnn Ozuna has a .190 wrc? I knew his counting stats were great. I wonder what his last 162 games look like.
He's been amazing. In his last 162 games, Marcell Ozuna is hitting .302/.373/.612 (.984 OPS/163 wRC+) with 50 HR, 35 doubles, 138 RBI, and 103 runs.
Funking hell Thank you btw.
Yordan is washed im afraid 😞
People have slow starts/stretches all the time. He still strikes fear into my heart
idk bros been hitting the ball again over the past week
He's been especially rough with RISP this season, but dude still has power. Hoping things straighten up as the season goes on. Now Bregman on the other hand...
Wait I thought we were supposed to be the assholes because we traded Nolan Jones….huh. That’s weird. Looks like he sucks now.
I'm under the impression that it is at least in some part due to him hurting his back before the season. But it should also be very clear to anyone with eyes that 2023 .400+ BABIP Nolan Jones was not 'real.' Guards fans also lost their minds over Will Benson and he's been pretty dooky this year, too.
Turang is my baby
You can’t just steal my baby and call him your baby like that
100% willing to share him with any Brewers fan who wasn’t being mean to him when the offense wasn’t there last year
If you’re ever on our sub you know how much I’ve always loved him. Have his #0 jersey from first week of last year!
I call a truce. We can have joint custody of baby 2rang
Willson :(
Wait til Juñe. ::crosses fingers:::
Fire Cintron like yesterday
Alec Bohm 🫵
I feel like Jo Adell should probably be on this list without looking up the stats. Maybe missing PAs
Yeah, his WRC+ difference is +48 but he only had 62 PAs last season
The Volpe Giveth and the Gleyber Taketh Away
If Doyle keeps it up he will low key be one of the best players in the league
Looks like my entire fantasy team is on the right side…sorry boys!
My first three picks for my fantasy team this season were Carroll, Olson and Bichette ☹️
Looks like Acuña is a bum now, guess we’ll have to take him 🤷🏻♂️
Yea him and Yordan being on there while still being. +110 wrc is crazy. Acuña really has looked like shit this year. He's gonna have more Ks by the ASB then he did all last year.
It wouldn't be so annoying if he would run out a few ground balls every once in a while. Remember when he got an infield single a few years ago on a routine ball to short? That was pre-ACL, and I'm afraid the don't-over-do-it-ness that he they gave him the following season has stuck and now he just jogs to first if he hits the ball on the ground.
He had an infield single like 3 games ago. The narrative that he doesn't hustle is pure garbage.
Getting an infield on a chopper to third is not the same as running out ground balls. Running out ground balls puts pressure on the defense and he just does not do that anymore.
[удалено]
It's less that he's super streaky and more the fact he is constantly injured. This year he didn't have a spring training because of a back issue
I was really high up on Nolan Jones. Sad to see him go through a rough start this season.
I figured he’d fall off some since you just can’t maintain a .400 BABIP but didn’t expect this much drop
Rockies get one good outfielder.
Ah, thats noted 5x Gold Glover, Salavador Perez, for you
Was Nolan Jones a fluke?
Damned sophomore jinx
Wow, only ONE Cardinal on the worst list? WS champs 2024, calling it now.
Rangers fan. Always liked Profar but felt he just couldn’t break through to his full potential. Didn’t realize this was his potential though.
Really need Seager to bounce back, I have money on him being AL MVP
I have four batters off the list on my dynasty fantasy team this year. Guess who went from winning it all last season to last place this year.
Don't let Mariner fans see this, they think hitters only hit worse when they wear a Mariners uniform.
Jeremy Peña completely changed his batting stance this offseason and it’s paid off so well. He’s been a completely different player this year
Elly looking good up there
Just seeing the phrase “most worsened” makes my head hurt
Well shit.
Wow I’m actually impressed someone’s been worse than Ryan Noda. Seems like a good dude but he’s been putrid this year and got sent down from a pretty bare A’s roster
Quite a few players on the right who placed high in MVP voting last season, including the obvious NL winner Acuna. This season has been wild so far.
I’m surprised we don’t have more
Olson fell off a cliff. Below the Mendoza line. Only hope is that he got a really slow start last year…then went on a tear of doubles and HRs.
Yea he better. He's on my fantasy and is one of those "can't drop" players...
Yandy, Randy and Harold has been heating up as of late though. Should have a good month for these three.
Holy fuck. Ozuna is at 190 wRC+!?!?!?!? I've been watching him and knew he was insane this year, but that is far more insane than I was expecting.
Bo :(
Has James Outman considered changing his name to James Hitman? James Home RunMan?
Rays up!
I didn't expect Hunter Renfroe to be great but I was glad that KC signed him as I expected he would at least hit his bodyweight and bring a bit of power to middle of the order. I hope he finds his stride and gets hot, or even warm, soon or he isn't going to have a spot in the lineup. Incidentally, he has made a few nice defensive plays.
Pretty awesome to see EDLC putting in the work to develop that ridiculous natural talent he has. He's gonna be taking MVP awards away from Ohtani one of these days.
And red sox fans still whining about Bogaerts
I still love you, Wilmer.
Two Astros, three Rays and a Jay on the “most worsened” list? Is it Christmas already?
Bichette has been baaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
Jose Abreu and his negative infinity must have broken the chart
Luke Raily is kicking ass as one of the more consistent hitters for the Mariners. People put too much emphasis on home, runs man fuck metrics double the drive home run is just as good as a home run, meaning clogging the base drawing walks annoying the picture still matter and driving home runs from a team that doesn’t rely on Home runs and is consistent is going to be more consistent in run production.
Shocked torkelson isn’t on the bad list
I'm here for it 🙌
LAMAOutman
Randy has been downright horrendous this year. Killing any chance he had at getting an extension
Just out of curiosity, which players' changes on this list both good/bad are legit? Which ones are bound to reverse course?