RADIO
BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~230
CURRENT ADP: ~250 overall
ANALYSIS: A lot has changed for Howie Kendrick in this new baseball landscape. For one, Kendrick may be a full-time player now with Ryan Zimmerman opting out and the presence of the universal DH. That's great news because he just had the best fantasy year of his career and posted a .966 OPS that was 122-points higher than his previous career-high of .844. More so, Kendrick has only posted greater than a .800 OPS four times in 14 seasons and has a .768 OPS for his career.
It may have been a change in approach that drove Kendrick's career-year rather than it just being a large outlier. Kendrick had a 91.6 average exit-velocity (career-high), 11.4-degree launch-angle (career-high), 11.4% Brl% (career-high), and a 48.3% hard-hit rate (career-high). He also posted career-highs in xBA, xSLG, wOBA, xwOBA, and xwOBACON but he didn't just break his previous highs; he smashed them. Kendrick hit fastballs and breaking balls better than he ever has before in 2019, posting career-highs against them in BA, xBA, SLG, xSLG, wOBA, and xwOBA. His fly-ball rate was also a career-high while his 34.1% Pull% was his highest rate since 2009. And just for fun, Kendrick has a career-low 13.2% K-rate that was backed up by a career-low 7.2% SwStr%.
Last year, he finished at 180 on Razzball's player-rater in 2019 with just 370 PA, so it would wise to bet on Kendrick's success now that he is locked into a bigger role.
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