Welcome to Week 9 of our ongoing series recapping the previous week’s best hitters and pitchers. This week we’re highlighting two players, one a pitcher the other an outfielder, doing their best to keep their respective teams in the playoff hunt.
BEST HITTER: Jose Bautista, OF, Blue Jays
It’s actually quite surprising to me the Blue Jays have struggled so much this year. I know they have weak pitching, but when you put Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and Josh Donaldson in the line-up you should feel pretty good. Instead they’re two games under .500 and in third place. They’re far from out of it though and Jose Baustista is doing his best to make sure that doesn’t happen. Last week, he slashed .391/.500/.913 (.580 wOBA, 286 wRC+) with four home runs and even two steals.
Honorable Mention: Maikel Franco has played in just 22 games so far in this his first season at the major league level. He struggled out of the gates but showed Philly fans some of his upside this past week. He slashed .400/.400/1.000 (.594 wOBA, 295 wRC+) with fiev home runs. He led the majors in slugging, ISO, and wOBA.
MLB Leader:
AVG – Cameron Maybin (.579)
OBP – Cameron Maybin (.579)
SLG – Maikel Franco (1.000)
wOBA – Maikel Franco (.594)
wRC+ – Jose Bautista (286)
HR – 5 players tied (4)
SB – Jose Reyes (5)
fWAR – Jose Bautista/Joc Pederson (0.7)
BEST PITCHER: Chris Archer, Rays
Chris Archer faced the Angels and the Mariners last week. He threw a combined 15 innings and only allowed 1 run (Angels). He 26 batters and didn’t walk anyone. Combined the two teams notched 12 hits. Archer became the first pitcher in the modern era to have 3 starts in a row with 11+ strike outs and zero walks.
Honorable Mention: There was more than a few people that expected Lance McCullers’ future home to be the bullpen. He’s done his best in a handful of starts to change that perception. His most recent start against the Orioles was a complete game victory. He allowed 1 run, on just 4 hits and no walks. He struck out 11 batters.
MLB Leaders:
K% – Chris Sale (52.0%)
BB% – 16 players tied (0.0%)
AVG – Sonny Gray (0.77)
WHIP – Trevor May (0.29)
ERA – 8 players tied (0.00)
FIP – Chris Sale (0.26)
xFIP – Chris Sale (0.46)
fWAR – Chris Archer (0.9)
Statistics courtesy of FanGraphs
