MLB Studs Week 16
July 7 - July 13
Min PA
C - 13 PA
Field - 18 PA
* = Leads position
C - Salvador Perez (KCR)
.381/.435/.857*/1.292* - 252 wRC+*
21 AB, 8 H, 1 BB, 1 2B, 3 HR, 4 RBI, 6 R, 4 K
Big Sal Perez is aging like fine wine, doing all the same things he always has, just slower. Sal is the oldest everyday catcher in the big leagues right now at 35 years old and he’s playing to a 90 wRC+, which yes is below average but he’s also a catcher, and he’s also 35, his career average is 102 so this is pretty standard for him. Where he is struggling more than usual is against left-handed pitching this year where he’s struggling to a .584 OPS compared to his career average .782 where he actually has better numbers than against righties. Week 16 may have been a turning point in this area for Sal though, as he recorded two extra-base hits off lefties Bailey Falter and Andrew Heaney.
The double off of Andrew Heaney came off of a really good changeup actually, barely on the plate away and Sal sent it just shy of 400 feet, a shot that would’ve been a homer in 24 other ballparks. A few days later he teed off on the Pirates again, this time for a 3-hit effort and a two home run day. One of his home runs came off of southpaw Bailey Falter on a meatball sinker on the first pitch of the bottom half of the second and Perez got all of it, sending it 444ft to centre field just a little right of where he puts his next one. His second homer of the day was a moonshot to left-centre, 11° higher in launch angle than his other tater but also left the bat at 110mph. Sal hit a lot of balls hard this week, hitting 4 balls over 100mph and he’s on pace for maybe another 25 homer season and way over-producing what the industry was projecting him for. It isn’t out of the ordinary for him though, not play wise at least, but eventually, the age is going to catch up to him, eventually but I am happy to still see him catching on a regular basis.
HM: J.T. Realmuto (PHI), K. Higashioka (TEX), A. Ramírez (MIA), S. Murphy (ATL), C. Raleigh (SEA)
1B - Nick Kurtz (ATH)
.381/.480/1.048*/1.1528* - 302 wRC+*
21 AB, 8 H, 4 BB, 2 2B, 4 HR, 9 RBI*, 8 R*, 8 K, 1 SB
The AL Rookie of the Year award plays for the Athletics, somewhere, if it isn’t this guy it’s his tap dancing shortstop. Kurtz had 5 homers in his final 9 games going into the break and had 4 just in the final 6. He started his week with his first career grand slam, a full count, only 1 out in the 2nd, already up 5-0 and what could most accurately be called Home Run Derby pitch from poor Jesse Chavez and the A’s had a 9-spot put on the Braves before Sean Murphy has even had an at-bat yet. Kurtz doesn’t swing a whole lot in or out of the zone, but he also doesn’t make a ton of contact in or out of the zone. He’s particularly struggling with breaking balls, and particularly from left-hand pitchers, a pretty common problem but one he’s suffering from pretty badly right now. But it’s also not like he’s swinging at terrible pitches way out of the zone, he’s swinging and missing at pitches down and away but in the zone.
5 of his 8 strikeouts last week came on breaking balls and 4 of them were swinging strikes on pitches at the bottom of the zone, but when he does make contact, even a little, he has the power to take left-handed breaking balls the other way like he did twice in Week 16. Kurtz is up to 3 home runs off lefties this year and two of them came last week. The easiest of the two was the second one off southpaw Justin Bruihl on a first-pitch sweeper and Kurtz smashed it over the fence in left field to score the other AL ROY candidate Jacob Wilson. He had to earn the first though, after whiffing on a slider below the zone to put him in a 2-strike count, Dylan Lee would try to get him just a little further but he managed to hold up and then he took a fastball deep down the left field line on the next pitch to tie the game in the 8th. He’s only 22, and he’s going to continue to add things to his game as he learns, and if using the opposite field at a more consistent level is one of them, league be warned.
HM: T. Soderstrom (ATH), J. Burger (TEX), N. Schanuel (LAA), J. Aranda (TBR), B. Harper (PHI)
2B - Cole Young (SEA)
.389*/.476*/.778*/1.254* - 252 wRC+*
18 AB, 7 H, 3 BB, 1 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 4 R, 4 K
Cole Young entered the All-Star Break on a 5-game hitting streak and managed to notch his first two career home runs last week. Cole has long been touted for his hit tool and defensive prowess but he’s still just 21 and growing into his frame where he’ll likely get to a 15 homer type of power potential, and as a middle infielder, that, as well as his bat-to-ball skills and glove talent will surely play at the big league level. He started slowly in his first taste of AAA this year, before a monster May where he slashed .366/.467/.673 to help even him out and earn a promotion to the bigs.
Week 16 was a big one for Young as he visited Yankee Stadium for the first time in his career and got to head to Comerica to play the AL leading Tigers to end his week. Young’s struggles with fastballs continued in New York, late on the Cam Schlittler heaters in his first two at-bats, striking out on a foul tip in his second. Young was able to make up for his tardiness on the heater by putting together an excellent at-bat against Loáisiga, fouling off 3 tough pitches before waiting back on a pretty good curveball and sending it over the right field fence on a rope. The kid has a track record of getting on-base at every stop, so I’d like to see him increase the walk rate while continuing to work on his aggression in the zone on fastballs. In Week 16 he took 8 4-seamers for called strikes, 44 of them so far this season and it’s that type of hesitancy that’s hurting his effectiveness in the box, but given his hit tool and how highly the organization views him, I don’t think these struggles will last forever.
HM: C. Keith (DET), M. Semien (TEX), J. Chisholm Jr. (NYY), X, Edwards (MIA)
3B - José Ramírez (CLE)
.269/.394/.769/1.163 - 193 wRC+
26 AB, 7 H, 5 BB*, 1 2B, 4 HR*, 11 RBI*, 10 R*, 3 K, 7 SB*
A fairly modest slash line for JRam, but chalk full of game-breaking talent as we’ve become accustomed to seeing from the hot corner attendant. He started the week with homers in 3 straight games and showed off the versatility he’s become famous for as he stole multiple bags twice last week, including a 3-steal day at the White Sox, and there was only one game last week where he didn’t record an RBI. Ramírez is still one of the premiere 5-tool players in the big leagues and has held his own even with the insurgence of the new age of talent we’ve seen enter the league the last few years. José is nearly at a 20-30 season and is tied for the league lead in bags with 29 while being the oldest player in the top 5.
Almost every hit of his week went for extra-bases and almost every hit drove in a run. He did damage from both sides of the plate too, two home runs from each side of the plate including homers in all 3 games at Houston. The Guards jumped Hunter Brown in his start, popping for 6 runs through 4 innings, and José got the party started in the 1st with a 2-run homer off a changeup Brown left right in the middle of the zone. José is still doing everything for the Guardians, he stole 3 bags against the South Siders in one game last week and is proving he’s still the #1 third basemen in baseball. A monster from both sides of the plate but in different ways, 15 of his 19 homers have come as a left-handed hitter and so his ISO is better by 30 points, but his slash line from the right side of the plate is outrageous even without the homers – .352/.410/.556 and striking out less than he walks. The home run power might come easier as a lefty but his other tools shine especially bright from the right side, and at 32, José is still dominating the hot corner.
HM: Z. McKinstry (DET), N. Marte (CIN), M. Machado (SDP), B. House (WSH), E. Suárez (ARI)
SS - Corey Seager (TEX)
.440/.563*/.760*/1.323* - 266 wRC+*
25 AB, 11 H, 6 BB*, 2 2B, 2 HR*, 5 RBI, 8 R, 5 K
Corey Seager seems to have found his stride in July after not walking once in May and struggling to a .165 ISO in June. His OPS for July is well over 1.000 and his wRC+ is 204 and he’s notched 9 extra-base hits already this month while he had only 18 the first 3 months of the season. Seager has been running a much higher ground ball rate than usual, up over 47% for the year, almost 57% in June, but July has seen that figure fall below 40% which is a much better jumping point for a guy known for doing damage with the stick.
Week 16 started with 5-straight multi-hit games for the two-time World Series MVP and almost every one came on a pitch on the outer third of the plate. 6 of his hits over the course of the week came off southpaws including a double off the leg of Framber Valdez and a home run to straight away centre field off Yusei Kikuchi. Seager walked 6 times last week compared to his 5 punchouts and took some borderline pitches to get there. His two walks against Ryan Gusto came on some competitive fastballs that would’ve had a lot of left-handers breaking their bat and grounding out to second. The Rangers are the 2nd team out of the AL Wild Card finding themselves 2.5 games back of a playoff position, they’re also reasonably within the race for the division at 6.5 games back, but a Wild Card appearance seems more likely. The Rangers are 17-13 their last 30 but they’re being carried by their pitching as the offense has a wRC+ of just 95 in that span, but they’re 5th in ERA and 8th in FIP, but if they’re going to compete, Corey Seager needs to be the guy leading this lineup, putting together strong at-bats and pushing for a playoff berth.
SS - B. Bichette (TOR), G. Henderson (BAL), Z. Neto (LAA), X. Bogaerts (SDP)
OF 1 - Kyle Stowers (MIA)
.500/.583/1.000/1.583 - 312 wRC+
18 AB, 9 H, 4 BB, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 6 R, 4 K, 1 SB
A change of scenery for Kyle Stowers seems to be all he needed to unleash his full potential. His 21 home runs this season mark the first 20 homer season of his career, and his first season with 10, even his first with 5. Through his first 3 partial years in the bigs he had a TOTAL of 9 home runs, so not only is he at 21, he’s more than doubled his career total. The first time All-Star in 2025 ended his first half with a massive 3-home run game in a 5 for 5 effort at his former employer Baltimore Orioles and he quickly got back to work after the break, cracking two home homers to make it 5 jacks and 11 ribbies over the course of two games. Still working with a punchout rate over league average, he’s reigned it in from closer to a career average 34% before the year began and has greatly improved his walk rate up over 10% this year. He’s working with a 20% barrel rate this year which is just preposterous, and he’s chasing less than 30%, just putting together quality at-bats and putting himself in positions to do damage.
Stowers was hitting everything on the 13th, he tagged 5 different pitches for base hits, including 1,165 feet of home runs. All 3 of his home runs came off poor Brandon Young in what was just his 6th big league appearance. Stowers was mashing everything, a splitter down, a curveball up and a 4-seamer inside all found their way into the seats as the Fish destroyed the Orioles 11-1 to end their first half. Kyle Stowers is the perfect example of what a team might miss out on when they get themselves into a youngster logjam the way the Orioles have these last few years, a guy with insane pop whose hit tool has been better than advertised this year. Hitting just a hair under .300, he still has a strikeout problem, already at 100 on the year, but to give him credit, that is a 7.5% improvement in terms of K%, and he’s improved his walk rate by 4%. This has been a great coming out party for Stowers and with an All-Star selection under his belt and a swing-off home run, he’s already well on his way to a monster second half.
OF 2 - Byron Buxton (MIN)
.588*/.632*/1.059*/1.690* - 365 wRC+*
17 AB, 10 H*, 1 BB, 3 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 7 R, 2 K, 1 SB
Byron Buxton is healthy and he’s raking like we always knew he could. Buxton is 3 stolen bases away from his first career 20-20 season which feels like it has to be wrong but it isn’t, we’ve been robbed of one of the league’s most exciting talents, but he seems to have figured something out on the health front. His 55% hard hit rate this year is one of the best in the league and is his best career mark, and he’s slugging over .550 on all 3 pitch types. Using his legs more reliably than ever as a big leaguer, Buxton hit for the cycle against the Pirates last week, making him the 12th Twin and the 1st at Target Field to accomplish this, and on his bobblehead night to boot.
The power/speed threat started with an infield single in the 1st hit right to IKF and he just flat out beat the throw. He’d continue his speedster ways in the 2nd by roping a base hit over the head of O’Neil Cruz and turning on the jets at second base and legging out a triple to a part of the park that doesn’t often see a lot of them and he was HYPED, you can tell how much this run of healthy baseball means to him and to his team. Just 1 inning later he roped a ground rule double to the left-centre gap, which scored a run, but also robbed him of likely another RBI. He would collect another single in the 5th before he finished the assignment in the 7th on a curveball from Andrew Heaney that he sent 427ft to dead-centre field. The RBI machine wasn’t kind to Buxton in this one as his 5 hits only rewarded him with 2 RBIs but it did score him 3 runs. In all, the Twins’ star player is putting together an excellent season by anybody’s standards, but it’s even sweeter to see it coming from a guy who’s been handed an unfortunate hand when it comes to health. He’s making great contact and collecting a ton of barrels, all of baseball is hoping this continues, Twins fan or not.
OF 3 - Julio Rodríguez (SEA)
.320/.414/.840/1.254 - 244 wRC+
25 AB, 8 H, 4 BB, 4 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 10 R, 6 K, 2 SB, 1 CS
That’s more like it, Julio. I’ve been fairly vocal in my criticism of the Mariner’s centre fielder, particularly about his ability to get on-base, which has never been his calling card, but in 2025 it’s been even worse. Walking below 7% of the time and sporting a ground ball rate over 50% Julio has really struggled to do damage this year. His numbers with RISP are by far the worst of his career, slashing .211/.298/.333 with just a wRC+ of 83, but this week he saw some improvement. His numbers this week with runners on base were promising, OPSing 1.018 with a .375 OBP and a wRC+ of 186, much more like the Julio we all think he really is.
Julio logged hits in all but 1 game in Week 16 with extra-base hits in each of those games as well. He had 7 extra-base hits in a matter of 6 games against two of the best teams in the league in the Yankees and Tigers. He logged a 3-hit game against Detroit on the 12th, including a double and a home run in a 15-7 romping of the Tigers for the second day in a row. He hit 5 line drives including one off a Jack Flaherty fastball that he sent over the wall in right field in a hurry with a launch angle of just 18°. Julio really loves hitting against the Tigers, and not just their depth guys, he took a Tarik Skubal changeup 440 feet to left field on what is likely one of the only mistakes Skoob has made with his changeup this year. Baseball needs Julio to start heating up, there’s so much talent at the position right now and the sport is better with more superstars, hopefully the 7 extra-base hits last week is a sign that there’s more thump on the way from the former AL ROY. If he’s going to improve he’s going to need to make better swing decisions on pitches in the chase and waste zones, where he’s really struggled this year.
HM: C. Bellinger (NYY), C. Rafaela (BOS), T. Soderstrom (ATH), R. Anthony (BOS), M. Trout (LAA), W. Langford (TEX), A. Martínez (CLE), A. Judge (NYY), A. Garcia (TEX)
SP 1 - Garrett Crochet (BOS) vs TBR
W, QS, CGSHO, 9 IP, 3 H, 9 K
Boston is making a run in the AL East and their pitching in Week 16 was lights out, from Crochet, to Gio, to Bello. The Sox have won 13 of their last 15 and find themselves sitting in the 2nd Wild Card spot, 3 games back of the Blue Jays in the AL East heading into the All-Star Break. Crochet pitched the first complete game of his career in his shutout of the Rays in Week 16 and he had to be nearly perfect to get it done. In a game that only saw 1 run and 8 combined hits, Crochet didn’t have a lot of room to stumble.
The Rays threw together a lineup of strictly righties with Brandon Lowe on IL, and Crochet would not flinch. The southpaw leaned on the inner third fastball in this one a little more than the high and away approach we see him employ at other times, and it really worked. He surrendered only 3 base hits, all singles, and executed when it mattered most. The Sox found themselves up 1-0 in the 6th and in the only trouble they’d seen to this point. With men on the corners and only 1 out, Ha-Seong Kim would try and lay down a bunt on a high heater that Abraham Toro would make an outstanding play on to get Taylor Walls at home. And now, they’ve got runners on the corner again, but two outs this time and Crochet would get Mangum to ground out to second on 3-straight sweepers to get out of the jam. The sinker was excellent in this one, racking up 7 called strikes across just 17 pitches, but the sweeper is where a lot of the outs came. It wasn’t just a Garrett Crochet night, the ground balls induced by Crochet’s sweeper had to be picked up by someone and Story played a great shortstop behind the southpaw to solidify the 1-0 win in a pitcher’s duel. The pitch menu worked really well in this one, an even mix of 4 pitches kept the Rays from sitting on one particular thing and the sequencing of the 3 fastball varieties helped to keep his 4-seamer from getting sat on and hit hard which has sometimes been trouble for him. Crochet goes into the All-Star Break 2-3 starts away from from matching his career high in innings so it’s not guaranteed that this level of dominance will stick around come the back end of August and into September, but for now, Crochet is jockeying with Detroit’s own version of a psycho southpaw for the best odds to win the AL CY Award in 2025.
SP 2 - Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) vs LAD
W, QS, 6 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 1 HR, 1 ER, 12 K
This kid is electric, whether you think he’s a 2025 All-Star or not, he is going to be a main-stay in this event for a long time. Let’s preface by saying, I am aware that 5 games is a small sample size, but the talent and the competitive spirit is undeniable. Miso has shown off the electric arm he was garnering attention for in the minors and a fiery drive that will serve him well through his career, but he’s also proven to be human, he’s shown that he does have some holes that need filling in and that his progression is certainly not finished. Depending on how you look at that, you can be a doubter or a big, BIG, believer, and I happen to fall into the latter category. In his 5th career start he faced off against the Dodgers and it did not start the way he’d probably hoped. In a style much like many before him, Miso gave up a leadoff homer to Ohtani, but he didn’t let that throw him off his gameplan. He was nearly untouchable for the remainder of the game, racking up 12 punchouts, managing to strike out every Dodger except for the 9-hole Miggy Rojas at least once.
Miso was up to a dozen strikeouts by the end of the fifth inning and got started straight away after getting tagged by Ohtani by getting Betts swinging at a nasty slider off the plate. His command was tight all night long, he was able to bury the curveball on the back foot of lefties, snatching swinging strikes on 5 curves below the zone. Miso was also able to paint the outer third with fastballs to the big left-handed bats in the Dodgers lineup. Nearly 90% of his 19 curveballs came against left-handed bats and 8 of the 13 swings were whiffs, showcasing just how well his arsenal works off of each other. Batters swung at more than 50% of his sliders even though only 42% were in the zone, and on the 4 they put in play they had an average exit velo of just 73.3mph. Only giving up one walk in this one was a promising sign, not only because of his proclivity for walks, but because of the Dodger’s dominance in the OBP and base on balls department. Limiting the Dodgers to just one walk when he allowed St. Louis 4 free passes in his first big league start is a huge improvement as the Cardinals rank 18th in walks per game. His Stuff+ numbers in this one were unbelievable, he finished with a combined rating of 123 Stuff+, 116 Location+ and 144 Pitching+ for this start. We’ve always known about the fastball, but per Stuff+ numbers through 25 innings pitched, The Mizz has one of the best curveballs in the league on top of that demon fastball. The kid is well on his way to stardom and we’re just 5 starts into this thing.
SP 3 - Carlos Rodón (NYY) vs CHC
W, QS, 8 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 8 K
What a bounce back performance from the southpaw. After what was one of his worst starts of the season against their Subway Series Rival in his previous start, Rodón pitched a gem against a dangerous Cubs team who is scoring over 5-runs per game in 2025. Rodón is having a great year in New York after struggling in his first two seasons with the pinstripes on, and he currently leads the American league in hits per 9 with less than 6 which is a career best mark for him. His strikeout rate has remained respectable at over 28%, all while limiting base hits and increasing his ground ball percent.
He had the two main offerings working in this start, the slider racked up 13 whiffs, 8 against the lefties in the Cubs lineup and the fastball slipped in for 13 called strikes. He really controlled the bottom third and the inner third of the plate, he threw 52 sliders and while only 47% hit the zone, almost all of them were relatively competitive and they were swung on nearly 50% of the time. He was running the fastball inside to righties all game and he rarely missed the zone with it and it kept hitters off-balance expecting a slider down and in. He was able to pitch freely and aggressively since the Yanks put up runs for him in almost every inning, and that led to a lot of balls being put in play. Lucky for Rodón, his right fielder is the best hitter in baseball and also a Gold Glover; Judge robbed PCA of a homer, made a diving catch in the 8th to save runs from scoring and made 2-3 other excellent plays in right to stop hitters from reaching base and base runners from scoring. He’s having a much improved season this year against right-handed hitters, he’s below his career .397 slug percentage by over 50 points and is limiting righties to just a .190 batting average. He’s done this over an MLB leading 20 starts this year and if he can continue to pitch at this level and the Yankees add another arm at the deadline, this rotation is going to be trouble.
SP 4 - Framber Valdez (HOU) vs TEX
QS, 6 IP, 4 H, 10 K
This was Framber’s 3rd double-digit strikeout effort in his last 7 starts and he’s now 1 such game away from tying his career high for double-digit punchout games in a season, and we’re only just past the halfway point. His K/9 is above 9.0 right now for only the third time in his career, but he’s not a guy that needs a lot of swing and miss in his profile to be successful. Framber has always relied heavily on his infield defense and that has helped him to pitch deep into games and remain efficient with his pitch count which is why he leads the league in complete games this year and why he sits 8th in complete games among active starters. He has 9 complete games in his career which is excellent considering almost every guy with more is over the age of 35, except for Sandy Alcantara. It’s the near 63% career ground ball rate where he harnesses all of his power.
Framber ran a 70% ground ball rate versus Texas who as a team is tied for the 6th best fly ball rate in the league. He relied even more than usual on the sinker/curveball combination and the curve was looking deadly but it didn’t start off that way. In fact maybe his only true mistake pitch of the day was a curveball in the first that ended up a wild pitch and would lead to an unearned run to scoring. The first inning was dicey for the southpaw as he loaded the bases on a Dubón error, a slappy single and a hit batter before he uncorked the wild curveball for an unearned run, but he’d settle down after that striking out both Langford and Heim on sinkers in identical locations inside on the black. He notched 6 of his 10 punchouts via the curveball including 3 that were pitches in the dirt. And although he may be walking guys a touch more than he has the last few years, he still ranks 1st in the bigs in GIDP since 2020 with 33, so even if he’s giving up baserunners, he’s able to pitch effectively to induce ground balls to help him get out of trouble and also control the pitch count.
SP 5 - Brayan Bello (BOS) vs COL, vs TBR
2 W, 2 QS, 15.1 IP, 11 H, 1 BB, 1 HR, 3 ER, 5 K
Almost every active Red Sox starting pitcher had an argument for a spot on this list, I guess that’s what happens when you win 10 in a row. In his past 10 outings Bello hasn’t allowed more than 3 runs in a game and has notched 7 quality starts while playing teams like the Yankees, Brewers and Blue Jays. Bello, much like the guy in the 4-spot of our Studs rotation this week, does a lot of his work down in the zone and relies on a heavy amount of ground balls. Bello hasn’t been able to generate the swing and miss numbers he has in the past, he’s down below a 20% whiff rate but he’s also been able to drastically cut down on the amount of home runs he’s giving up.
Bello put together a great week but most impressively a 10-punchout complete game victory over the Rockies on Tuesday night was the kicker. Bello used basically 4 pitches in this one, sinkers and sweepers to righties and fastballs and changeups to lefties. Bello owned the inner half of the plate to righties, punishing them with sinkers up and down the zone, and going to his sweeper a lot in 2-strike counts. The sweeper was excellent, he grabbed 7 called strikes with it and induced 6 whiffs as well, finishing 4 at-bats with the big breaking ball, 3 of which were swinging strikes. And the sinker is really working well for him, lots of late drop and rated 7th in hard hit percentage leading to a stellar 0.65 ISO on the pitch. Bello entered 2025 looking to mix in a 4-seamer to lefties more often and increased his cutter usage against righties, both presumably added to take some of the focus off of the sinker and change the eye level every so often. It’s pretty common to see sinker ballers take different approaches against lefties as the movement pattern of sinkers gets pitchers into trouble there, but this 4-seamer addition has helped him improve his slash line against lefties in every facet. Interestingly, he has 35 punchouts of each right-handers and left-handers this year, while seeing 34 more lefties than righties.
HM: N. Cameron (KCR), J. Junk (MIA), N. Eovaldi (TEX), F. Peralta (MIL), E. Pérez (MIA), C. Sanchez (PHI), N. Pivetta (SDP), M. Kelly (ARI), M. Boyd (CHC), J. Luzardo (PHI)