Week 6 MLB Hitters & Streamers Forecast

Yes, I know it’s baseball season, but as a football fan, it’s difficult to not pay attention to the NFL Draft. Back to baseball talk, in the past week, several teams called up their prospects in Alex Kiriloff, Deivi García, and Luis Patiño. With García, the Yankees optioned him back down to their alternate site after one brief start on Monday. Admittedly, I attempted to dig deep into the player pool last week for hitter streamers. Unfortunately, it ended up as a rough go with everyone outside of a catcher in Omar Narváez.

One week of data for hitters isn’t long enough to make any major takeaways, but let’s try this again. Once again in Week 6, we have a ton of teams playing seven games with a couple of teams only slated for five games, meaning most teams play six or seven games next week. With the Week 6 hitter streamers, we dig deep once again as we find intriguing numbers and situations for each of these hitters. Even though this is a major football weekend, baseball is a grind, and let’s keep grinding.

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Week 5 Streamer Hitter Review

Freddy Galvis – Loss (.250 BA, 1 RBI)
Joey Wendle – Loss (.176 BA, 1 R, 4 RBI)
Avisaíl García – Loss (.056, 1 SB)
Guillermo Heredia – Loss (.176 BA, 2 R, 1 RBI)
Enrique Hernández – Loss (.238 BA, 5 R, 1 RBI)
Omar Narváez – Win (.357 BA, 1 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI)
Miguel Rojas – Loss (.100, 4 R, 1 RBI)

Woof, talk about a rough week as I attempted to dig deep for some hitter streamers. It says something when a catcher performs the best out of this entire mix. Hopefully, we’ll bounce back next week, but a seven-game sample is still quite small for compiling stats.

Easier Week 6 Hitter Matchups

Cleveland – 4 at KC, 3 vs. CIN
Kansas City Royals – 4 vs. CLE, 3 vs. CWS
Los Angeles Angels – 4 vs. TB, 3 vs. LAD
Minnesota Twins – 4 vs. TEX, 3 at DET
New York Mets – 4 at STL, 3 vs. ARI
Oakland Athletics – 4 vs. TOR, 3 vs. TB
Philadelphia Phillies – 4 vs. MIL, 3 at ATL
Tampa Bay Rays – 4 at LAA, 3 at OAK
Toronto Blue Jays – 4 at OAK, 3 at HOU

With the majority of teams here, we’re targeting volume. We have 12 teams playing seven games with only two teams scheduled for five games. Unfortunately, some of these teams with 6-7 games in Week 6 have struggled in the past couple of weeks. In the past 14 days, the Twins, Tigers, Mariners, and Cardinals rank in the bottom six in the league in terms of team wOBA. However, the Angels and Phillies rank in the top-12 in team wOBA during the past two weeks.

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Honorable Mention:

Seattle Mariners – 3 vs. BAL, 3 at TEX
Milwaukee Brewers – 4 at PHI, 3 at MIA
St. Louis Cardinals – 4 vs. NYM, 3 vs. COL
Texas Rangers – 4 at MIN, 3 vs. SEA

Interestingly, the Brewers have a .317 team wOBA (No. 9) over the past 14 days yet the team has been ravaged by injuries with Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain on the injured list. However, the Brewers rank 19th with a .299 team wOBA over the full season. Meanwhile, the Cardinals and Mariners rank in the bottom of the league in team wOBA over the past two weeks and the entire season. We’re mentioning Mariners and Cardinals hitters since they face the Rangers and Rockies pitchers, who rank dead last and second to last in wOBA allowed. Furthermore, the Rangers rank 21st in team FIP (4.30) and the Rockies rank 24th in team FIP (4.45). Even the Orioles pitchers don’t present a difficult matchup with a 4.35 FIP (No. 23) and a .313 wOBA (No. 18).

Tougher Week 6 Hitter Matchups

Chicago White Sox – 2 at CIN, 3 at KC
Cincinnati Reds – 2 vs. CWS, 3 at CLE
Detroit Tigers – 3 at BOS, 3 vs. MIN

The White Sox and Reds end up as the only two teams with five games this week. With the Tigers, they have performed quite awful with a .242 wOBA (No. 30) over the past 14 days and .280 wOBA (No. 30) throughout the entire season. Dead last and last isn’t great. The Orioles also show up as one of the worst hitting teams based on team wOBA with a .278 wOBA (No. 28) in the past 14 days and .284 wOBA (No. 29) on the season. However, they face Boston and Seattle, who have middling or better pitchers than expected. The Red Sox rank 2nd with a 3.21 FIP, 8th with a 3.66 ERA, and 10th with a .301 wOBA allowed. With the Mariners, they fall closer to the middle of the pack with a .302 wOBA allowed (No. 12), 3.90 ERA (No. 12), and a 4.11 FIP (No. 17). That said, hesitate with Orioles hitters outside of Cedric Mullins, Trey Mancini, and maybe Maikel Franco in deep leagues.

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Week 6 Hitter Streamers

Alex Kirilloff, OF, Minnesota Twins

Since Alex Kirilloff’s recent callup, he’s batting .130 with one double, one run, and one RBI. In the minors, Kirilloff boasted a high batting average and high on-base skills with a career .317 batting average and .365 OBP. He rates as having an average to above-average hit tool and power. Although it’s a small sample of 20 batted balls, Kirilloff has a 15% barrel rate and 60% hard-hit rate.

The Twins face the Rangers and Tigers. Currently, the Rangers pitchers rank last in team wOBA allowed (.338), and Tigers pitchers rank in the bottom-10 of the league. Meanwhile, the Rangers and Tigers tie for the 7th and 8th highest team ERA, and similar with team wOBA, both teams rank in the bottom ten. With seven games ahead, the Twins project to face seven straight right-handed pitchers, which means Kirilloff’s bat shouldn’t leave the lineup. In 10-12 team formats where you need an outfielder, this looks like the week to stream Twins hitters.

Luis Arráez, 2B/3B, Minnesota Twins

By now, we know Luis Arráez‘s profile – high batting average, high OBP, and a ton of contact. In 86 plate appearances, Arráez has one home run, ten runs, and nine RBI with a triple slash of .284/.372/.351. Over the past 14 days, Arráez has a .306 batting average with four runs and three RBI. He lowered his chase rate to a 25.1% O-Swing% with an 89.4% Z-Contact% and 86.9% Contact% overall. Interestingly, those numbers dropped compared to a career 94.3% Z-Contact% and 91.9% Contact%. Regardless, he boasts contact rates above the league average. Again, mostly to boost batting average and OBP, but Arráez could help in that category this week and moving forward in 10-12 team leagues.

Sam Haggerty, OF, Seattle Mariners

Are we witnessing the second coming of Dylan Moore from 2020? Admittedly, even as a Mariners fan, I overlooked Sam Haggerty in deep league formats. Sure, Haggerty is a bit of a bench bat or desperation play in 15-team leagues. However, he’s heating up over the past 14 days with one home run, six runs, three RBI, and three steals with a .320 batting average in 28 plate appearances. We’ll note that most of this production came in the past six games after sporadic playing time throughout the season. It’s difficult to pass on the recent power/speed production in deep leagues.

Under the hood, Sam Haggerty’s batted ball data doesn’t look half bad either with a 94.4% Z-Contact% and 77% Contact%, both above the league average. Meanwhile, Haggerty rocks a 9.7% barrel rate and 51.6% hard-hit rate. The Mariners play six games this week with three each at the Orioles and Rangers. We already discussed the Rangers pitching, but the Orioles also rank in the bottom half of the league in wOBA allowed at .313 (No. 18) with a 4.16 ERA (No. 17) and 4.35 FIP (No. 23). Keep Haggerty in mind for 15-team leagues as he’s rostered in 29% of NFBC leagues up to this point.

Tyrone Taylor & Billy McKinney OF, Milwaukee Brewers

Sometimes when we’re scrolling through leaderboards and players, we stumble upon names that don’t typically catch our eye. This time it’s Tyrone Taylor and to a lesser extent Billy McKinney of the Brewers. A tricky part with Taylor – he projects to platoon with Billy McKinney with the Brewers depleted outfield losing Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich. We’ll focus a bit more on Taylor since he’s swinging a hot bat. However, McKinney could play more next week since they face five out of seven righties outside of Matt Moore and Trevor Rogers.

In 27 plate appearances, Tyrone Taylor has two home runs, two runs, seven RBI, and one steal with a .391 batting average. Although it’s a small sample, Taylor has a 22.2% barrel rate, 110.8 maximum exit velocity, and 44.4% hard-hit rate. After hitting all three of his home runs in a four-game stretch, Billy McKinney hasn’t done much outside of that. A bit of a desperation play for Taylor and McKinney if your team suffered several injuries.

Josh Harrison, 2B/3B, Washington Nationals

These next two hitters look like they’re turning back the clock. Josh Harrison, who hasn’t shown a glimmer of relevance since 2017 when he had 16 home runs and 12 steals with a .272 batting average. So far in 2021, Harrison has a .314 batting average with two home runs, seven runs, and eight RBI. Harrison recorded a hit in ten out of his 13 games played. He never lights up the Statcast data, but Harrison is making a ton of zone contact with a 92.1% Z-Contact% while having a 79.8% Contact%, both above the league average. In 15-team leagues, make sure to scoop up Harrison for some middle or corner infielder help with batting average with some pop.

Ryan Zimmerman, 1B, Washington Nationals

Hey, what do you know, another veteran bat for the Nationals that hasn’t performed up to this level since back in 2017 and 2018. In 44 plate appearances, Ryan Zimmerman has a .333 batting average with three home runs, five runs, and seven RBI. Sure, enter the small sample alert, but consider streaming Zimmerman in deep leagues. He’s another hitter that increased his zone contact rate to 92.6% compared to his career rate of 88.2%. Through 32 batted ball events, Zimmerman has a 9.4% barrel rate, 110.9 mph maximum exit velocity, and 43.8% hard-hit rate. If Josh Bell keeps struggling, Zimmerman could eat into that playing time at first base although the Nationals probably can’t keep his bat out of the lineup.

Jordan Luplow, OF, Cleveland

This feels a bit like the Tyler Naquin situation where an outfielder that typically platoons hits a hot streak that makes us raise our eyebrows. With Jordan Luplow, it’s about the power and he seems to have a locked-in spot towards the top of the lineup. Luplow typically only mashed against lefties evidenced by his career .265 batting average and .969 OPS. That remained the case in 2021 with a .875 OPS against the lefties, but he also boasts a 1.003 OPS against the righties. For reference, Luplow holds a career .625 OPS against righties in his career. Luplow project to face three lefties in their seven-game week, but it doesn’t look like we should turn away from him even against righties so far. Unfortunately, he won’t help with batting average but could provide some home run power in Week 6 for deep leagues.

Three Games for Rockies-Giants Hitters

To kick off Week 6, the Rockies and Giants play each other in Coors Field for three games. Way back when in the Week 4 Hitter Streamers article played five games at home, and we recommended C.J. Cron even if he was ice cold. We’ll briefly note a couple of deep league hitters to plug into lineups for the first half of Week 6.

For the Rockies, it’s Yonathan Daza. In the past 14 days, Daza has one home run, two runs, and five RBI with a .324 batting average. Daza showed some speed with a high batting average in the minors, which should play well in Coors field given the BABIP fueled environment. Daza continues to earn playing time, so he’s worth speculating on in 15-team leagues. In NFBC leagues, Daza is rostered in 17% of leagues, so he’s widely available in 15-team leagues.

With the Giants, look at the veterans in Brandon Belt and Wilmer Flores. We know Belt is a better fit in OBP leagues, but he’s swinging a hot bat in the past two weeks. During that stretch, Belt has three home runs, seven runs, nine RBI, and one steal with a triple slash of .256/.365/.535. Belt also keeps crushing the ball with a 19% barrel rate and 54.8% hard-hit rate. Meanwhile, Wilmer Flores provides more of a batting average floor recently with a .281 batting average, one home run, six runs, and five RBI in 33 plate appearances over the past two weeks. The Giants platoon a ton and swap hitters in and out, so they’re better for daily moves leagues.