Hot and cool...fantastic together! This was a tremendous concept in the mid-'80s for McDonalds as the McDLT launched in 1985. It kept the ketchup, lettuce and tomato cool in one half of the environmentally unfriendly packaging while keeping the beef patty hot on the other side of the container. I spent two and a half years working for the company as I wrapped up high school and began college, and never quite cared for the sandwich myself because it was a pain to bag for drive-thru orders and happily celebrated the sandwich's demise.
Nowadays, the motto is all about fresh and hot. That can apply to quick service food as much as your fantasy teams. Over the past 30 days, we have had some notable names on the hot side as well as several notables on the cool side of the stats. The past 30 days includes anywhere from 19 to 25 games for qualified hitters on the Fangraphs Leaderboard and we have some surprising names peppered throughout. Let's take a look at some of the hitters who are definitely on the hot side these last 30 days.
Nick Kurtz and Shea Langeliers: These two bombers have combined to hit 18 homers and drive in 41 runs while scoring 46 times. Kurtz has the higher batting average at a ridiculous .430, but Langeliers is hitting .372 and is one extra base hit shy of besting Kurtz in slugging percentage. Kurtz, with his .430/.515/.826 line over his last 30 days,
Hot and cool...fantastic together! This was a tremendous concept in the mid-'80s for McDonalds as the McDLT launched in 1985. It kept the ketchup, lettuce and tomato cool in one half of the environmentally unfriendly packaging while keeping the beef patty hot on the other side of the container. I spent two and a half years working for the company as I wrapped up high school and began college, and never quite cared for the sandwich myself because it was a pain to bag for drive-thru orders and happily celebrated the sandwich's demise.
Nowadays, the motto is all about fresh and hot. That can apply to quick service food as much as your fantasy teams. Over the past 30 days, we have had some notable names on the hot side as well as several notables on the cool side of the stats. The past 30 days includes anywhere from 19 to 25 games for qualified hitters on the Fangraphs Leaderboard and we have some surprising names peppered throughout. Let's take a look at some of the hitters who are definitely on the hot side these last 30 days.
Nick Kurtz and Shea Langeliers: These two bombers have combined to hit 18 homers and drive in 41 runs while scoring 46 times. Kurtz has the higher batting average at a ridiculous .430, but Langeliers is hitting .372 and is one extra base hit shy of besting Kurtz in slugging percentage. Kurtz, with his .430/.515/.826 line over his last 30 days, really should simply be intentionally walked every time he comes to the plate and yet he has been walked 14 times, all unintentionally, over the past 30 days. Meanwhile, the only player with more home runs than Langeliers over the past month is Kyle Schwarber as he hit his 12th homer in that time last night against Cincinnati.
Kyle Manzardo: The Cleveland offense does not fire on all cylinders most nights, but Manzardo has done his best to keep things moving along and is now attempting to make his trade from Tampa Bay to Cleveland look as bad as the trade that sent Cristopher Sanchez to Philadelphia for Curtis Mead. The Rays reportedly win every trade, but Manzardo is currently raking at a .365/.453/.746 clip for the Guardians against righties, while Aaron Civale is pitching for yet another club after the Rays dealt him to Milwaukee in July of 2024.
Michael Harris II: Harris finally decided enough was enough after an abysmal first half and looks like a new man in the second half. Harris has made adjustments to his stance and where his hands start, which is helping him take a new path to the baseball and leading to him driving the ball in the air much as he did toward the end of 2024:
Harris II is hitting .364/.382/.677 over the last 30 days with a 2.9 percent walk rate and a 14.6 percent strikeout rate. We can forgive the low walk rate with this type of production that is miles ahead of what he was doing before the break as he attempts to reward more recent fantasy managers with the success that avoided the previous fantasy managers who cut bait on him in early July (raises hand).
Kyle Stowers: Did you know over the past 30 days, he has as many home runs as Shohei Ohtani and has driven in six more runners than Ohtani while hitting just one point lower in batting average? Stowers has posted a .303/.394/.663 line in that time and has been one of the best late-round or even free-agent pulls of the season while finally achieving the production expected of him as he ascended in the Baltimore organization. At least Trevor Rogers is now pitching well to somewhat offset the sting of this 2024 trade.
Matt Wallner: The new father should be returning from paternity leave today, and fantasy managers hope that his time away does not cool off a hot streak that has seen him homer seven times, score 14 runs and drive in 12 runs over his last 80 plate appearances. This hot stretch is helping him salvage what has been a disappointing season at the plate, as his overall average sits at .218 and just over 40 points below where he hit last season in nearly the same amount of playing time.
Josh Bell: Speaking of salvaging seasons, most of the offense in the nation's capital has been dreadful lately (more on that later) yet Bell is all alone in the hot side of the roster hitting .317/.349/.508 over his last 19 games. His three home runs have driven in a total of five runs, which speaks to just how dreadful the offense has been with the rest of the roster.
Flipping over to the cool side, we find nobody cooler than Cam Smith in Houston. Smith is hitting .136/.211/.173 over his last 90 plate appearances with as many homers as those of us reading this article and yet has somehow driven in nine runs. The Astros have stuck with the 22-year-old rookie despite his struggles, but his playing time could disappear if Yordan Alvarez actually makes it back off the IL sometime in the near future.
Nathaniel Lowe, James Wood, Brady House, and CJ Abrams: This quartet of Nationals has combined to hit seven homers and drive in 33 runners in 347 plate appearances. Wood has struck out in 43.5 percent of his plate appearances while House has in 30.6 percent of his. House, despite the strikeouts, is the only member hitting above .200, while Lowe and Wood are both hitting below .160 over their last 30 games. As OutKast told us, "How cool is cool? Ice cold!"
Lawrence Butler: Butler has been as ice cold as Kurtz has been red hot. Butler is hitting .143/.241/.243 over his last 30 days with two homers, 10 runs, five RBIs and three steals. The 11.1 percent walk rate is helping him do anything because the 33.3 percent strikeout rate has not helped his cause. Perhaps the new home park is encouraging him to open up for power, because Butler's swing-and-miss rate has spiked throughout the season and is well above the time in which he took off last year and carried several fantasy managers to the promise land:
Francisco Lindor: Lindor is an ice-cold .163/.219/.265 over his last 30 games and has managed to score 13 times while driving in 10 and swiping four bases. Lindor may be pressing with a 4.8 percent walk rate as he continues a trend this season that is likely to see him post his lowest walk rate since the 2019 season.
Mookie Betts: Betts has not been anywhere near himself this season at the plate, and his .202/.274/.286 line over the past 30 days is not going to help him close the chasm between his current season totals and the projections we had for this perennial superstar before the season began.
We are obviously running out of runway on this fantasy season, and it is getting increasingly tougher to absorb some of these slumps. Hopefully your rosters have more of the hot streaks and have avoided the ever-increasing injuries that continue to pop into the Rotowire news feed on a daily basis so that your title hopes don't fade away like the McDLT did 40 years ago.
Find out who to target the rest of the way with RotoWire's MLB Rest of Season Projections!
