Collette Calls: Where's the Beef?

The dog days of summer have arrived early for several fantasy sluggers who have either a long history or a recent history of slugging. As play begins on July 5th, there are currently 22 players which have not homered in at least 30 games. The longest active homerless streak belongs to Myles Straw, who currently has as many homers this season as you, the reader. Tim Anderson missed time with injury, otherwise he would be right there with him, as his would-be grand slam a few days ago was overturned on replay:

There are several other names on the current list which aren't surprising, such as Jon Berti, Esteury Ruiz, Nicky Lopez and a smattering of second-string catchers who see irregular playing time. That said, everyone on that list has at least 92 plate appearances, so most of these names are carried on rosters in 10-team mono leagues at the very least. We can scratch Jacob Stallings off this list, as he homered in the process of me beginning this article. 

The larger concern is the handful of names on this list who have not homered in quite some time. These things typically work themselves out, but it's worth looking into what could possibly be causing these prolonged dry spells for the names in the table below:

Merrifield is at least still contributing in batting average and steals during this stretch, but the reconfigured Rogers Centre hasn't helped him with homers this season as he has just two on the year. His current dry spell is approaching 40 games. Merrifield hasn't had any lingering injury issues, but his rolling average launch angle continues to trend in a bad direction, making it tough to hit anything over the fence:

That trend, along with declining quality of contact, is rapidly turning Merrifield into a declining fantasy asset who will play out his final years at the bottom of lineups rather than as the tablesetter he was for so long with Kansas City. 

Tellez just hit the injured list with a right forearm strain Wednesday, a move both he and the club are calling precautionary. He does not expect to miss more than the minimum amount of time. This might help explain why Tellez has done so poorly since his last home run back on May 22nd and gives us some context into why his expected slugging numbers have been below league average for quite some time now:

Rizzo's slump could not come at a worse time for the Yankees given the uncertainty around the return of Aaron Judge (toe) as well as the multiple injuries the club is dealing with on the pitching side of the ledger. Rizzo was slashing .303/.385/.531 up until the start of this power outage, and while he's still getting on base, most of us do not play in OBP leagues and are lamenting having him in our lineups. I'm right there with you, as I traded for Rizzo in AL LABR days before this slump began. He's yet to homer for my squad in 117 at-bats and has 12 runs and 10 RBIs in a league where I'm not afforded the luxury of benching a slumping hitter. 

Rizzo has recently been dealing with a bruised elbow after taking a pitch off the joint in a late June start, which came on the heels of him getting over a late May neck issue. Those issues pop on his breakdown chart:

This dinged up version of Rizzo hasn't elevated much at all and isn't hitting the ball with the same type of authority or launch as the healthier version of him did earlier this season. This is not as much to do with teams pitching around him with Judge out as much as his body failing him:

Harper is doing everything we want at the plate, except hitting for homers. Quite honestly, did anyone realistically expect someone to come back from Tommy John surgery and pick up where he left off? All of his hitting measures are where we wish they would be — setting aside his launch angle:

That particular part of his swing hasn't fully recovered and I'm not sure it will anytime soon. Having watched his at-bats the past few days, the swing looks flatter these days than a typical Harper swing path. Hitting is the toughest thing to do in sports, and it's even tougher when you're coming back from major surgery and a long layoff. Be thankful he is n't tanking the rest of your numbers like other names on this list have done during this power outage. 

Suzuki has most recently dealt with some neck tightness, but the updates on his player page also mention him being out while "dealing with some small things." It shows:

Suzuki has hit well in spurts this season and his batted ball profile is very attractive for the amount of red on it related to hard contact, but this power outage is very much related to his difficulties elevating the baseball as he deals with these physical issues:

Finally we get to Diaz, who looked as if he was finally on the verge of a power breakout this year. Diaz was triple-slashing .333/.435/.635 with 12 homers before this current power outage. Simply put, it directly correlates to an old refrain for him: launch angle. Diaz has fallen back into the pit of groundball despair while he too has dealt with some upper torso issues over the past few weeks:

Diaz still sprays the ball to all fields but is now more frequently hitting grounders to the pull side and has rarely even challenged the warning track over the past six weeks, whereas before he was lifting and launching and looking like one of the best late-round buys of the season. He has made it to the All-Star Game but has done so on the strength of his early surge and the lack of quality production at the position in the American League this season.

It's challenging to continue to roster these power outages, but we know what each of these players is capable of when they are 100 percent healthy. Some have already shown it this season, while others have an established track record of production. Use the off days next week to see if you can acquire some of these players whose power outages have been frustrating their current fantasy managers and see if you can turn that into a benefit for you down the stretch.