Will Jose Bautista and Corey Hart Keep Slugging after the All-Star Break

Al Melchior, Data Analyst for CBSSports.com created a rather interestinginteractive tool for you to use. It measures the players ISO. More specifically this interactive table can be used to located MLB players with the Highest Isolated Power Rates.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have some of these sluggers on my team this year.  

This first line of “By the Numbers: Can Bautista, Hart keep Mashing?” reads,

"When we posted the Power Leaderboard for the first time last month, it seemed odd to see Jose A. Bautista, Corey C. Hart and Kelly Johnson nestled among other more familiar power sources like Justin Morneau, David Ortiz and Jayson Werth.

Yet here we are heading into the Fourth of July weekend, and two of the three are still hanging around. Johnson continues to hit doubles at a frenzied pace, but with just one home run for the month of June, he couldn't keep pace with the other inhabitants of the leaderboard. Bautista and Hart, though, have not only remained among the leaders in Isolated Power (the rate at which a hitter gets extra bases), but both have climbed further up the charts in the past month. They rank first and third, respectively, among all major leaguers in this category."

Click Here For Interactive Version

Of those I have or have had Bautista, Hart, Johnson, and Morneau.

Jose Bautista 3B,OF – Bautista offers infield/outfield position flexibility and has a High ISO. Meaning Bautista will continue hitting bombs this year, he just needs to continue swinging the bat well and make contact.

Corey Hart  OF – Brewers breakout this year had been the subject of trade talks earlier this year, but has taken a stance. Hart is putting up career-high numbers this season, and is among other hitters like CWS Alex Rios who are benefiting from dropping their hands in his batting stance this season.

Kelly Johnson 2B – Diamondbacks secondbasemen was a tremendous free agent pickup for my fantasy team this season when Ian Kinsler started the year off on the DL with a high ankle sprain. Many people forget for the first third of the season Johnson was among the league-leading home run hitters.

Justin Morneau 1B – The Twins first-basemen may be stepping out from behind catcher Joe Mauers shoes this season. Morneau has led all three triple categories for most of the season with Miguel Cabrera right beside him.

Miguel Cabrera 1B Det - fills my regular first basemen slot on my fantasy team, and I use Justin Morneau as a full-time Utility player.

Check to See if your Players are on this Chart

Joe Mauer and the Fifth Annual All-Wiener Team

 I found the July 1^st Yahoo! ROTO ARCADE post by Brand Evans titled Lames: Magic-less Wandy leads 2010 All-Wiener team to be quiet interesting. Mainly because one of the players lucky enough to make the 5^th annual All-Weiner Team was Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer. Ironically, Mauer leads all players in the All-Star voting.

C: Joe Mauer(notes), Min

Overall Rank (Preseason, Current): 13, 170 
"Mauer's lack of muscle, discussed in length two weeks ago, is shocking only to those who stupidly invested a first-round pick in his services. Though the AL's leading All-Star vote getter may disagree, the power redux is very real. His 1.67 GB/FB, decreased success on fastballs and spacious Target Field surroundings will continue to keep his Killebrewian side hidden – and his value behind Miguel Olivo (notes). He's still a keen-eyed hitter who's invaluable in OBP formats, but in conventional circles, he'll be an above average producer, relative to position, in BA, runs and RBI." 

Fearless Forecast (rest of season): 296 at-bats, .316 BA, 6 HR, 36 RBI, 39 R, 1 SB

Earlier in the fantasy season I was offered a trade – Miguel Cabrera and Zach Grienke for Joe Mauer and Stephen Strasburg. I turned the offer away immediately, why? Two Reasons.

The first is really simple, Miguel Cabrera! Right now, no one in Major League Baseball swings a better bat than Miguel Cabrera.  


During the offseason he has made tremendous strides towards bettering himself and has straightened out all issues in his personal life that may have bothered him in the past. Simply put, he is a man on a mission, an inspired player with scary talent = clutch production and his 2010 stats don’t lie. 


Cabrera also has a total of 61 RUNS compared to Mauer’s 44 RUNS.

I have Morneau batting in a utility slot for me and the idea of that Twin Tandem sounded too good to be true.  If at any point I would have seen a drop in Morneau’s production which could be attributed to an increase in Mauer’s production who bats in front of Morneau, I would have considered it. Morneau’s numbers are outstanding and show no signs of slowing down. 


Mauer never seemed to get started this season. 

The dynamics of the Twins batting lineup and the types of hits Mauer’s getting are simply moving the runners and not scoring them.  Justin Morneau fills a utility slot on my team and though he drives in a lot of base runners, he wasn’t driving in and couldn’t drive Mauer in enough for me to consider breaking up my Brennan Boesch-Miguel Cabrera Tiger Tandem.