Sleeper hitters for Week 13 (June 15-21)
Spencer Horwitz's hot hitting has moved him into the leadoff spot, at least against righties, while earning him more regular looks against lefties. His .333 (20 for 60) batting average and four home runs in his past 15 games make him a fine choice to take advantage of the week's most favorable hitting matchups at the two best venues for hitters.
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Speaking of hot hitting, Jac Caglianone has finally begun to turn his monster exit velocities into production, batting .533 (16 for 30) with three home runs in nine June games. The Royals have the third-best hitter matchups this week, and I wouldn't worry about the three lefties on the schedule, seeing as Caglianone has hit lefties better than righties this year.
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Speaking of monster exit velocities, Bryce Eldridge has begun to deliver on his as well, carrying a .298 batting average and .907 OPS into the weekend. His expected stats back up the actual ones, thanks in large part to a much better contact rate than expected, and while the Giants' matchups this week are nothing special, I think you have to do what you can to pick up Eldridge regardless.
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Speaking of having a much better contact rate than expected, Zack Gelof does as well, striking out at a manageable 26 percent clip, and you can see the impact it's had on the rest of his numbers. The power/speed threat is particularly productive at the Athletics' hitter-friendly home, batting .291 with an .826 OPS there, and that's where he happens to be playing all seven of his games this week.
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Speaking of ... OK, enough with that. Kerry Carpenter has already homered three times in his two weeks back from a sprained shoulder, so I think we can trust him to be a prolific power hitter again, at least against righties. That's all the Tigers are scheduled to face this week in what rates as the third-best hitter schedule.
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Gleyber Torres also (and more surprisingly) benefits from the Tigers' righty-loaded schedule, seeing as he's batting .328 with an .837 OPS against right-handers. He's also batting .364 (12 for 33) with two home runs since returning from his own IL stint and should tee off on pitchers like Kai-Wei Teng, Peter Lambert and Erick Fedde.
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Lars Nootbaar has come back from double heel surgery, no worse for wear, throttling the ball to the tune of a 95.3 mph average exit velocity. He's collected four extra-base hits in just six games while walking at his usually high rate and should fare well this week against hittable righties like Lucas Giolito, Griffin Canning, Stephen Kolek and Seth Lugo.
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Wade Meckler consistently delivered high batting averages in the minors due to his penchant for line drives, and that's continued with the Angels this year. He can't be trusted to play against lefties, but fortunately, there are only two of those on one of the rare seven-game slates this week, which just so happens to rank second for hitter-friendliness.
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Ezequiel Duran is a pretty easy choice to slot here whenever the matchups are favorable, given that he's batting .296 with an .803 OPS and is playable everywhere but catcher. The matchups are indeed favorable for the Rangers this week -- fifth-best in the league, in fact -- with some of the opposing pitchers being Mike Paredes, Zebby Matthews, Walker Buehler and Lucas Giolito.
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Another interesting detail about the Rangers' favorable hitter slate is that there's nothing but righties on it. That's especially good news for their left-handed-hitting DH, Joc Pederson, who has enjoyed a redemptive season in many ways but basically never plays against lefties.
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