Fantasy Baseball: 6 Players Who Have Completely Erased Their Fast Starts
Wil Myers, 1B, San Diego Padres
The Fast Start
It's never great to see a hitter post a 1.7% walk rate and 29.1% strikeout rate over the course of 117 plate appearances, but managers will likely deal with it more when they're producing in just about every other area. That was kind of the deal with San Diego Padres first baseman Wil Myers in April.
After a career year in 2016 that netted him a six-year, $83 million contact over the winter, he sprinted out of the gates to the tune of a .310/.325/.593 triple slash with 7 homers, 20 RBI and 18 runs scored. That all added up to a .381 wOBA and 139 wRC+, along with securing a cycle in a game at Coors Field.
The Padres have basically performed how we expected them to this year, but they were at least interesting to watch because of the young talent on their squad and Myers in the middle of it all.
The Cold Streak
After such a hot start, his season-long stats no longer resemble the great success he experienced throughout the first month. He's now slashing .260/.315/.472 overall because he's produced a .296 wOBA and 83 wRC+ over his most recent 156 plate appearances.
Could he be running into a little bit of tough luck, though? The below table compares his line-drive rate (LD%), ground-ball rate (GB%), fly-ball rate (FB%), soft-hit rate (Soft%), and hard-hit rate (Hard%) during the month of April to what he's done since May 1st.
| Month | PA | LD% | GB% | FB% | Soft% | Hard% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April | 117 | 31.3% | 35.0% | 33.8% | 12.5% | 50.0% |
| Since May 1st | 156 | 16.7% | 40.0% | 43.3% | 17.6% | 41.8% |
The lack of line drives and increase in grounders aren't ideal, but a steep rise in fly balls while continuing to hit the ball hard is usually a recipe for success for a hitter of Myers' caliber. So, his .291 BABIP and .153 ISO don't seem to totally match how he's actually performing at the plate.
