Welcome back to another edition of Look Who’s Streaking! In this season-long series, we’ll be taking a look at players who are streaking – both hot and cold. The idea is fairly simple: We’ll highlight players who are streaking in either direction and take a closer look at their performance, with the ultimate goal of aiding lineup and waiver wire decisions.
September is here and that means there’s less than a month left in the fantasy baseball season. At this point in the year, we don’t have time to wait for cold streaks to turn around. So from here on out, we’ll only be focusing on players who are on hot streaks. Hopefully this will be useful in finding players who can help you out in specific categories for the final weeks of the season. So without further ado, let’s take a look at some players who are on hot streaks!
Note: Stats as of 9/10
Look Who’s Streaking!
Running Hot
Elvis Andrus (SS – CWS)
Elvis Andrus is having himself an end-of-season resurgence! He has a hit in 12 of the last 13 games, including eight multi-hit games. Over those 58 plate appearances, Andrus has four home runs, with 10 runs scored, 13 RBI, and one stolen base. He’s also slashing .364/.397/.655 with a .291 ISO and 200 wRC+.
The White Sox signed Andrus off waivers in mid-August, breathing new life into the veteran player. He’s been doing most of his damage from the leadoff spot in the last 10 games – slugging four of his 12 home runs during that span. Andrus’ speed has tapered off in the past couple of seasons, but he still has a respectable nine steals across 474 plate appearances this season. He’s also making contact in the zone at an 87.6% clip and striking out just 16% of the time. Andrus is making the most of his newfound opportunity, and it doesn’t look like he’s slowing down anytime soon. Rock and roll with Elvis!
Jake McCarthy (OF – ARI)
Jake McCarthy has been flat-out producing across the board. Over the past two weeks, he’s slashing .354/.392/.667 with a .313 ISO in 51 plate appearances. During this span, he’s hit four home runs, with 11 runs scored, 15 RBI, and six steals.
Overall, McCarthy has had a solid season. Across 263 plate appearances, he has eight home runs, 44 runs scored, 38 RBI, and 16 stolen bases to go along with a .294/.352/.471 slash line. McCarthy has a plus strikeout rate (20.5%), gets on base (.352 OBP), and his 30.1 ft/sec sprint speed is tied for fifth-fastest. McCarthy can contribute everywhere, and there’s not much not to like. He’s surprisingly available in many platforms, with his rostership sitting around 65% in Fantrax, CBS, and Yahoo. Come on, people!
Seth Brown (1B/OF – OAK)
Seth Brown is bringing the power, slugging four homers in the last five games. He’s also been a hitting machine over the past couple of weeks. Since August 28, Brown is slashing .317/.349/.659 with a 191 wRC+ across 43 plate appearances. In addition to his four taters, Brown also has eight runs scored and five RBI, to go along with a 60% hard-hit rate during that period.
Brown is no stranger to power. He hit 20 homers in 307 plate appearances in 2021 and has a career 12.9% barrel rate. This season, he has 21 homers, 46 runs scored, 55 RB1, eight steals and a .228/.292/.440 slash line in 465 plate appearances. He’s also barreling the ball 12.2% of the time and has a solid 40.9% hard-hit rate. Brown’s batting average won’t do you any favors, but a push for 25 home runs by the end of the season is definitely in the cards.
Lane Thomas (OF – WAS)
Lane Thomas is coming on strong again in the second half of the season. Since August 27, he has a .321/.419/.585 slash line with three homers, 10 runs scored, eight RBI, one stolen base, and a 169 wRC+ across 62 plate appearances. Thomas’ hot streak has moved him up to the leadoff spot where he’s been hitting for the past nine games.
Thomas has a little bit of pop and speed to his game. Over 453 plate appearances this season, he has 15 home runs, 52 runs scored, 47 RBI, and six stolen bases with a .249/.305/.420 slash line. He makes a bunch of contact in the zone (88.5%) and overall (80.6%), which pairs well with an above-league average chase rate (30.1%). Thomas has been piling up runs scored while leading off – seven runs scored in the last nine games. If he can hold that lineup spot, Thomas should be a nice run machine to close out the season.
TJ Friedl (OF – CIN)
TJ Friedl has been unstoppable over the past couple of weeks. Since August 26, he’s smacked five home runs, with 10 runs scored, and eight RBI across 46 plate appearances. He also has a .395/.435/.860 slash line, with his 1.295 OPS being third-highest over this period.
In 241 plate appearances in Triple-A , Friedl hit eight home runs and stole 10 bases. That balanced pop and speed has carried over to the majors, with six homers and six stolen bases across 174 plate appearances this season. Friedl is a contact hitter with great plate discipline metrics. On the season, his strikeout rate is just under 15%, and he’s making contact in the zone at an 90.1% clip. Friedl’s hot bat has moved him up to the leadoff spot for his last five starts, where he’ll have the opportunity to be productive in all categories. Keep in mind that Friedl sits against lefties, so you’ll have to consider his schedule moving forward.