Sleeper hitters for Week 22 (Aug. 18-24)
Few players in history have kicked off their career as impressively as Jakob Marsee has, demonstrating preternatural on-base and base-stealing skills as well as a little bit of pop. He might top this list even if the Marlins didn't have the fifth-best hitter matchups.
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While the actual matchups could be better for the Cubs, the fact that they're in line for eight games makes it pretty easy to recommend Matt Shaw, who's finally living up to his potential with eight home runs and four stolen bases to begin the second half. His average exit velocity and pull-are rate are significantly improved during that time.
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Andrew Vaughn shows no signs of slowing down, batting .338 (27 for 80) with seven home runs in his past 20 games, and may be verging on must-start status, frankly. Like the Cubs, the Brewers are facing some tough pitchers this week, but the eight-game schedule makes up for it.
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Sal Frelick has maintained a batting average around .300 for basically the entire season and was an integral part of the Brewers' success during their historic winning streak (which just ended Sunday). Expect him to score oodles of runs batting atop their lineup during an eight-game scoring period.
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"Nature is healing" is the theme of the second half, with Brenton Doyle joining fellow underachievers Michael Harris and Bryan Reynolds in a marked turnaround. He's the one of the three who was dropped in a large number of CBS Sports leagues, allowing you to take advantage of the Rockies having the second-best hitter matchups this week.
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Noelvi Marte comes out of the weekend hot, batting .441 (15 for 34) with two homers and five doubles in eight games, and his full-season numbers, despite the injury interruption, are pretty sweet, too. He's an easy choice with the Reds having the fourth-best hitter matchups this week.
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Jordan Beck has become a fixture in this space whenever the Rockies have favorable matchups, which is certainly the case this week with four games at home (where he's batting .316 with an .864 OPS) and another three against the Pirates pitching staff.
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Luke Keaschall has looked more human in Week 21 (Aug. 11-17) after seemingly being unable to make an out before then. There's still a lot to like here, including a tool set that resembles Jakob Marsee's, so you'll want to keep the faith with the Twins having the third-best hitter matchups this week.
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While I do think Colson Montgomery's power is legitimate, I don't think his 44-homer pace is, and I wonder what else he has to offer once it inevitably slows. But we can push that worry to another week with a full slate of righties ahead for the White Sox. Montgomery, a left-handed hitter, has a .862 OPS against righties vs. .620 against lefties.
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Kyle Manzardo is one of the hottest hitters nobody is talking about, batting .316 (25 for 79) with eight homers in his past 25 games. He tends to sit against lefties, but there's only one of those on the schedule for the Guardians this week.
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