ARLINGTON, Texas -- When May 2018 ended, Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo was hitting .211, but the power was there, as always, so Rangers fans and fantasy managers shrugged. This is simply who he is, right?
A year earlier, Gallo was hitting .207 entering June. Gallo finished those seasons, his first full campaigns in the big leagues, hitting .209 and .206, with a combined 81 home runs. We all thought we had a reasonable baseline for what to expect in 2019, which is why Gallo's average live draft position this season (10th round) looks, well, embarrassing compared to his current spot on the Player Rater (No. 21 hitter).
Well, surprise! This new Gallo, the one who enters
Gallo is a tremendous athlete with fantastic power, but nobody has ever been more likely to have a plate appearance end in the nominal "three true outcomes" (a home run, a strikeout or a walk) than Gallo, who hit career home run No. 100 before reaching that many singles, an MLB first. Home run No. 100 came several weeks ago. His 100th single came Tuesday.
"I talked to Luis right after the day he got hired on the phone [in November] for about an hour or so, and he was just saying one of the biggest things for me was to be stubborn," Gallo said Thursday in the Rangers' clubhouse, several hours before the Rangers lost to the Kansas City Royals 4-2. "I remember telling him, 'Wow, I really like that word.' That's one of those key words like when you get into trouble, hey, be stubborn. Be stubborn in the [strike] zone. I always had a good eye. I have never just been like a free swinger. I have been able to control the zone pretty well. It was just about improving that and getting better."
Gallo is among the league leaders in not only home runs and RBIs (the categories everyone notices) but also hard contact percentage, exit velocity and barrels (the ones that can turn a career .203 hitter entering the season into someone batting nearly 30 points better than league average).
His O-Swing percentage at Fangraphs, which measures the percentage of pitches a batter swings at outside the strike zone, has dropped from 32.7 percent to 25.3 percent. Gallo is making only slightly more contact, but considerably harder contact, as his rate has risen from 48.5 percent to its current 58.2 percent.
In addition, Gallo is hitting myriad line drives, especially to his pull side in right field, but fewer fly balls, while avoiding any loss of power. There is simply nobody in the league today who has made a transformation quite like this, but he's also one of the few players who had this extreme a profile to start with. All this comes with a similar strikeout rate -- which is OK in this case -- but with many more walks and a batting average 70 points above his career mark entering 2019. His BABIP hardly matches his career mark and is minor cause for concern, but he is hitting everything so hard, it might stick.
"We worked on shortening up my [swing] path," said Gallo, who missed Wednesday's game with a "tweaked" right wrist, but he and the team pronounced him ready for Thursday. Gallo had a quiet evening, striking out twice and drawing a walk from the No. 5 lineup spot.
"I remember one thing Luis talked about is I don't have to generate so much movement to hit the ball out of the ballpark," he continued. "He was like, all you gotta do is put your foot down and get a barrel to it. So we just worked on getting as short as I can to the ball. For a 6-foot-5 guy, it is not so easy, but I am trying to get as short as possible."
To fantasy managers, the word "stubborn" meant something else. Taking on Gallo's plate appearances -- and thanks to a high walk rate, he had fewer than many other every-day players -- meant stubbornly taking on an anchor of a batting average that can take a team from middle of the pack in the category to the bottom. It is tough to target players who can hurt an individual category to that degree, and I tend to practice a similar principle of avoiding pitchers who sport a high ERA or WHIP or, for fantasy basketball, low-percentage shooters from the field or the free throw line. Gallo is just a different hitter now, and Ortiz deserves ample credit.
"Most of it was to understand where his strengths are and be stubborn in that strength -- and that word kinda stuck with him: 'stubborn,'" Ortiz said while watching Gallo take batting practice Thursday. "It has been really fun watching him accomplish that task. We said from the beginning, if you can do it one time, you can do it many times. Understanding the balls that he can swing at that he can do damage and create a level of concentration. Hitting is about concentrating. Where is your attention at?
"If his attention is over the fence, then usually there is a lot of struggles close to the plate. So if our attention is close to the plate, there is going to be damage. Especially a guy as gifted as he is. There's never been an issue as far as the tools. It has always been about making more contact. If we emphasize that, then the other stuff is gonna happen."
This version of Gallo is no longer a batting average problem, though; as he notes, the season is only a third of the way through. He certainly appears proud of the adjustments he and Ortiz made, says it has been an enjoyable season so far, and when a reporter noted that he is in the conversation for the All-Star team, his reply spoke volumes: "The last two years, I wasn't even close to that conversation."
Gallo knew he had to make changes. but when I pressed him on whether the offseason adjustments were about the batting average category per se, he answered in a very analytical way.
"No, but on-base percentage is important. For a player like me, who is going to get walked a lot and probably not going to hit for a high average, that's important to get on base and slug. Average is always gonna fluctuate with me, so if I get too caught up in that, it is going to be too tough."
Rangers notes: Lefty Mike Minor breezed through five innings, but then, with his pitch count elevated, allowed a three-run home run to Jorge Soler in the sixth. Minor's 2.55 ERA coming in rose to 2.74, still among the top 10 marks in baseball. Few chose Minor in ESPN's ADP, but he has been a top-20 starting pitcher, and it looks legit, whether there is a summer trade to the NL or not. ... Shin-Soo Choo homered to center field in the third inning and continues to thrive in points formats as well as roto options. He is hitting for average and is on pace for more than 25 homers and 100 runs. Choo has never hit more than 22 home runs in a season. ... Nomar Mazara hit his sixth-inning home run the opposite way in left field, but there is no indication that long-awaited breakout to stardom is pending. He hit precisely 20 home runs each of his first three seasons. Will he make it four in a row? That is more likely than reaching 30. Not to be mean, but Mazara is the NL version of Philly's Nick Williams, and Williams lost his starting job. ... Rougned Odor was again hitless, with three whiffs, and his batting average fell to .161. His BABIP is barely .200, so give him time, but when you strike out more than a third of the time, a low batting average is rarely a fluke. ... Rangers pitchers struck out 16 Royals, half by Minor, and two in the final inning by deposed closer Jose Leclerc, who threw strikes on eight of 11 pitches. Whether that returns him to saves is another story.
Royals notes: Soler's blast off the left-field foul pole was his 14th, and he appears on his way to 30-plus homers. However, the home run total matches his walks. That rarely ends well. Soler might be one of the rare 30-homer options to sit on fantasy free-agent wires most of the season. ... Adalberto Mondesi, the big league leader with 18 stolen bases, singled twice and homered for the sixth time. Mondesi is third among all hitters on the Player Rater and a joy to watch and invest in, and we shall see if he can hit above .275 for six months. ... Billy Hamilton concluded a 14-pitch plate appearance against lefty Jeffrey Springs with his third strikeout of the night. Later, he fanned for the fourth time. Hamilton simply cannot hit at this level (sub-.300 OBP for his career), and despite playing regularly, he has stolen a mere 11 bases in 15 chances. ... Third baseman Hunter Dozier, having a quietly awesome season, left prematurely with chest tightness. That does not sound ideal. Plan ahead. ... Right-hander Jakob Junis won for the first time since May 1, but he struggles to miss bats and retire lefty hitters. No Royals pitcher -- starter or reliever -- is rostered in more than 13 percent of ESPN standard leagues, nor does that need to change. ... Longtime starter Ian Kennedy registered his third save but first since May 1. No other Royal saved a game since then either.
Other Thursday takeaways
• There were 34 hits and 21 runs scored over the 10 innings at Coors Field, with the Rockies squeaking out a win over Arizona. Christian Walker, Ian Desmond and Ryan McMahon were among those who homered, and each player deserves watching this weekend. Walker, who had homered once in May after bashing seven in the first three weeks, is not losing much playing time to Kevin Cron, which is surprising. Many fantasy managers have moved on from Walker, but perhaps that is a mistake. Desmond has six home runs but nary a stolen base. He has averaged 20 home runs and 19 steals over the past seven seasons, but if he is not running, fantasy managers will ignore him more than they currently are. Finally, it is interesting that McMahon is not losing playing time to prospect Brendan Rodgers. Who plays more this weekend? And if it is not Rodgers, why is he in the majors?
• By the way, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays visit Coors Field this weekend, which should be fun. Baseball nomad Edwin Jackson opens the series; his career ERA (12.71) and WHIP (2.25) at Coors Field over 28 1/3 innings are rather poor, even for the hitter-friendly venue.
• Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Lorenzo Cain hit third in the lineup for the second time this season, and he had three hits and four runs batted in. Cain's walk rate and stolen base output have fallen, but perhaps this gets him going. The Brewers pounded Pirates right-hander Joe Musgrove, whose ERA rose to 4.57. It was 1.54 when May started.
• Minnesota Twins lefty Martin Perez could not make it through three innings at Tampa Bay, allowing six earned runs. Perez and his newfound cutter entered play having won six of seven starts, and as one of the most added players in ESPN standard leagues but with a spotty track record, look for many a fantasy manager to move on quickly. That might be a mistake, but we will not know for a few weeks.
• Twins designated hitter Nelson Cruz, on the injured list for a wrist injury, can be activated this weekend, but the Twins, with depth and a huge AL Central lead, will likely be extra cautious. Cruz, who hit in a batting cage Thursday, seems unlikely to reach 37 or more home runs for the sixth consecutive season -- that is quite incredible, since nobody else has approached this and he is 38 -- but he should be on more ESPN Fantasy rosters anyway. The Twins struggled with Tampa Bay right-hander Charlie Morton on Thursday, but avoid Blake Snell the rest of the weekend.
• Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner did not start due to right hamstring tightness, and it seems viable that the Dodgers can be as patient as the Twins. Unlike Cruz, Turner has played in more than 130 games in a season just once in his career. The Dodgers face myriad Philadelphia right-handers this weekend, and Turner's playing time could be handled carefully.
Most recent KaraBlogs
Thursday, May 30: Will Alex Bregman steal bases again? Astros-Cubs notes
Wednesday, May 29: Free agent report: Giolito, Dietrich, injuries
Tuesday, May 28: Closer report: Where could Kimbrel go?
Fantasy Focus Baseball Podcast: All shows