Now presenting a new series here on Pressing Coverage. Each week I will be taking a look around baseball at the players who are scorching hot and ice cold. Enjoy!
Hot:
Marcell Ozuna
After a rough 2015 season, Marcell has re-established himself as one of the most talented young outfielders in the league. This past week Ozuna has an OPS of over 1.000 and hit two home-runs. His resurgence can be traced back to the Marlins hiring former superstar Barry Bonds to be their hitting coach. It looks like the advice he has given Ozuna is paying off. With Marcell regaining his form, Miami looks to have one of the best outfield trio’s in the league.
Noah Syndergaard
The god of thunder brought down the hammer this week going 2-0 with a zero era and .79 WHIP in 14 innings pitched. Thor also amassed a godly 21 strikeouts in that same span. During those two games Syn did not allow a single walk. The young flamethrower has taken the league by storm ever since his promotion last summer. This rising star looks to add another great arm to the already impressive Met’s rotation.
Jose Bautista
Getting clocked by Rougned Odor seemed to knock Bautista into a hot streak this past week. Hitting 4 home-runs and 9 RBIs over that span. Amounting to an over 1.200 OPS over the past seven days. After an extremely cold start to the season Joey Bats looks to be getting his grove back as one of the main run produces in the heart of the deadly Toronto order.
Gerrit Cole
The Cole train rolled through a tough Colorado lineup in da ‘burgh this past week. Going 7 strong innings giving up only one run and striking out ten. Cole has continued to be the model of consistency at the top of the Bucco’s rotation. Given their struggles with the rest of the starting rotation this season, Cole needs to continue his dominance to help out the rest of the pitching staff.
Not:
Prince Fielder
The prince has looked more like a jester so far this season. Hitting exactly .200 through 160 at bats this season. Even more worrisome is that Fielder has only hit two long balls so far. For a player very much know for his home run hitting abilities, this power outage is quite disheartening for the Rangers organization. After winning the comeback player of the year in 2015, it looks like Prince needs to go and find himself once again.
Matt Harvey
After a triumphant return from Tommy John surgery, the Dark Knight has looked like Robin as of late. Harvey currently holds a grotesque 5.77 ERA after being roughed up for 6 earned runs in only 2.2 innings on Thursday. Coming into the season if you told me Matt Harvey was going to have an ERA over 5 almost two months into the season I would have laughed in your face. For baseball fans everywhere hopefully Harvey can return to his dominant form in the near future.
Giancarlo Stanton
Stanton is another superstar who has been ice cold as of late. In his last six games Giancarlo has only recorded one hit and an OPS barely over .200. Even more concerning is that in his past 21 at bats, he has struck out 17 times. While Stanton has never been know for his plate discipline, this slump suggests there is a deeper problem with his game right now. Hopefully ,with the help of hitting coach Barry Bonds, Stanton will be able to break out of this cold streak soon.
Chris Archer
Archer was knocked around on Sunday giving up six runs all earned in three innings of work. While only being able to punch out three batter. Chris sits in a similar boat as Harvey, where his downturn has caught everyone by surprise. The young right hander has been able to scrape out a few nice outing this season, but more often then not he has been touched by opposing offenses. Archer needs to regain his front-line stuff to help lead a struggling Rays.
Feature image provided by: bloggingmets.com