This article is part of our The Saber's Edge series.
One of my favorite leaderboard searches is to look back at the last 30 days to see which players are performing well, but flying under the radar. Some players get too much of their value anchored to what they did in the first month of the season. This anchoring can help to inflate or deflate a player's value as the season goes on. By looking at a fresh leaderboard, an owner can expand their knowledge past the overall leaderboard and look for some possible trends. I will look at several common 30-day leaders and comment on some players of interest.
BATTING AVERAGE
Salvador Perez - Holy .509 BABIP Batman. Perez has always needed a decent BABIP to drive his value with his career 3.6 BB%. This hot streak is a perfect opportunity to sell, especially in redraft leagues. He looks to be selling out contact for power with his K% jumping from 15 percent last season to 23 percent this season. In addition to the strikeouts, Perez wears down as Ned Yost always finds a reason to keep him in the lineup. Before this season, his AVG has dropped 14 points from the first half to
BATTING AVERAGE
| PLAYER | AVG | BABIP | PA |
| Salvador Perez | .415 | .509 | 86 |
| David Ortiz | .386 | .382 | 101 |
| Carlos Gonzalez | .382 | .468 | 109 |
| Matt Carpenter | .382 | .459 | 92 |
| Ian Desmond | .373 | .459 | 127 |
| Paul Goldschmidt | .361 | .420 | 115 |
| Xander Bogaerts | .360 | .398 | 120 |
| Jose Altuve | .356 | .357 | 123 |
| Jurickson Profar | .349 | .397 | 87 |
| Jonathan Lucroy | .348 | .380 | 100 |
Salvador Perez - Holy .509 BABIP Batman. Perez has always needed a decent BABIP to drive his value with his career 3.6 BB%. This hot streak is a perfect opportunity to sell, especially in redraft leagues. He looks to be selling out contact for power with his K% jumping from 15 percent last season to 23 percent this season. In addition to the strikeouts, Perez wears down as Ned Yost always finds a reason to keep him in the lineup. Before this season, his AVG has dropped 14 points from the first half to
One of my favorite leaderboard searches is to look back at the last 30 days to see which players are performing well, but flying under the radar. Some players get too much of their value anchored to what they did in the first month of the season. This anchoring can help to inflate or deflate a player's value as the season goes on. By looking at a fresh leaderboard, an owner can expand their knowledge past the overall leaderboard and look for some possible trends. I will look at several common 30-day leaders and comment on some players of interest.
BATTING AVERAGE
Salvador Perez - Holy .509 BABIP Batman. Perez has always needed a decent BABIP to drive his value with his career 3.6 BB%. This hot streak is a perfect opportunity to sell, especially in redraft leagues. He looks to be selling out contact for power with his K% jumping from 15 percent last season to 23 percent this season. In addition to the strikeouts, Perez wears down as Ned Yost always finds a reason to keep him in the lineup. Before this season, his AVG has dropped 14 points from the first half to the second half as he wears down. His power numbers also drop as his ISO goes from .161 to .145.
Jurickson Profar - It is nice to see the once highly touted prospect get his career on track after dealing with injuries for the last couple seasons.
HOME RUNS
Adam Duvall - His 13 home runs likely are caring some fantasy teams, but he is a one-trick pony that could come up limp at any time. His 2.7 BB% is the 10th lowest among the 187 qualified hitters. Also, he has a 27.0 K%. The best comp I could come up with for Duvall is Adam Jones, but Jones makes quite a bit more contact. Maybe Danny Espinosa with a bit more power. I think he is a player who owners should ride the hot streak and then look at selling at the peak. That peak is now for Duvall.
Carlos Gonzalez - Healthy CarGo is doing healthy CarGo things. The key is if he can stay healthy.
Wil Myers - I am not 100 percent sure where I stand with Myers. Is he a prospect finally breaking out or is he just having a hot couple of months?
STOLEN BASES
All - As it can be seen with most of these players, the key to putting up great stolen-base numbers is the player needs to be on base. Davis, Villar, Marte and Nunez have displayed speed in the past. This season they are getting the opportunity.
Melvin Upton Jr. - Upton is the glaring exception to the above rule with his .264 OBP the last 30 days. Eleven of his 15 total stolen bases has come in those 30 days. If he can post an OBP closer to his career .323 level (.328 in '15) his stolen bases could tick up even more. I may inquire if his owner is willing to trade him with the chance of more stolen bases to come.
Eduardo Nunez - How people value Nunez will be interesting going into 2017. We have just over another three months of data to collect on him to make a better assessment.
STRIKEOUTS
All - I almost did the K/9 or strikeout leaderboard, but I went with strikeouts per game. "K/9" overvalues pitchers who don't go far into games. Strikeouts undervalue pitchers who have thrown one fewer start over the time frame.
Matt Shoemaker - While most of this list is no surprise to anyone, seeing Shoemaker at No. 3 is surprising. The key is his increased (see below) use of his split-change which generates 22-percent swinging strikes and a 47.0 GB%.
Zach Davies - Davies has gone with a simple approach to turn around his season, quit walking batters. His monthly BB/9 has gone from 4.7 to 2.5 to 1.6. Besides the low walk rate, Davies is known for his groundball nature (51.0 career GB%), so if luck is on his side, he can have a great stretch of games. The issue with him occurs when he doesn't have the best of luck and a singles train comes rolling over him.
Jake Peavy - He has improved mainly by following the simple rule of striking out more batters and walking less. His monthly K%-BB% has gone from 9 to 11 to 18 percent. Looking for any changes to his game, he has decided to drop his slider and uses his cutter more and more.
Michael Fulmer - The results for him the last month have been great, but he somehow ends up on this list with a BB% rate higher than 10. I think there may be some regression headed his way with his ERA at 2.43, and his ERA estimators all closer to 4.00.
BATTING AVERAGE
| PLAYER | AVG | BABIP | PA |
| Salvador Perez | .415 | .509 | 86 |
| David Ortiz | .386 | .382 | 101 |
| Carlos Gonzalez | .382 | .468 | 109 |
| Matt Carpenter | .382 | .459 | 92 |
| Ian Desmond | .373 | .459 | 127 |
| Paul Goldschmidt | .361 | .420 | 115 |
| Xander Bogaerts | .360 | .398 | 120 |
| Jose Altuve | .356 | .357 | 123 |
| Jurickson Profar | .349 | .397 | 87 |
| Jonathan Lucroy | .348 | .380 | 100 |
Salvador Perez - Holy .509 BABIP Batman. Perez has always needed a decent BABIP to drive his value with his career 3.6 BB%. This hot streak is a perfect opportunity to sell, especially in redraft leagues. He looks to be selling out contact for power with his K% jumping from 15 percent last season to 23 percent this season. In addition to the strikeouts, Perez wears down as Ned Yost always finds a reason to keep him in the lineup. Before this season, his AVG has dropped 14 points from the first half to the second half as he wears down. His power numbers also drop as his ISO goes from .161 to .145.
Jurickson Profar - It is nice to see the once highly touted prospect get his career on track after dealing with injuries for the last couple seasons.
HOME RUNS
| PLAYER | HR | PA | ISO |
| Adam Duvall | 13 | 111 | .429 |
| Carlos Gonzalez | 10 | 109 | .373 |
| Evan Longoria | 10 | 113 | .350 |
| Wil Myers | 9 | 113 | .378 |
| Edwin Encarnacion | 9 | 115 | .355 |
| Danny Espinosa | 9 | 102 | .319 |
| Carlos Beltran | 9 | 93 | .345 |
| David Ortiz | 8 | 101 | .409 |
| Corey Seager | 8 | 125 | .252 |
| Justin Turner | 8 | 105 | .301 |
| Kris Bryant | 8 | 112 | .313 |
| Jake Lamb | 8 | 95 | .349 |
| Mike Napoli | 8 | 114 | .280 |
| Adam Jones | 8 | 130 | .235 |
| Evan Gattis | 8 | 112 | .270 |
Adam Duvall - His 13 home runs likely are caring some fantasy teams, but he is a one-trick pony that could come up limp at any time. His 2.7 BB% is the 10th lowest among the 187 qualified hitters. Also, he has a 27.0 K%. The best comp I could come up with for Duvall is Adam Jones, but Jones makes quite a bit more contact. Maybe Danny Espinosa with a bit more power. I think he is a player who owners should ride the hot streak and then look at selling at the peak. That peak is now for Duvall.
Carlos Gonzalez - Healthy CarGo is doing healthy CarGo things. The key is if he can stay healthy.
Wil Myers - I am not 100 percent sure where I stand with Myers. Is he a prospect finally breaking out or is he just having a hot couple of months?
STOLEN BASES
| PLAYER | SB | PA | OBP |
| Rajai Davis | 11 | 110 | .355 |
| Jonathan Villar | 11 | 122 | .369 |
| Starling Marte | 8 | 97 | .381 |
| Eduardo Nunez | 8 | 125 | .333 |
| Melvin Upton Jr. | 7 | 110 | .264 |
| Ben Revere | 7 | 97 | .309 |
| Elvis Andrus | 6 | 106 | .340 |
| Josh Harrison | 6 | 98 | .306 |
| Ian Desmond | 5 | 127 | .409 |
| Mike Trout | 5 | 115 | .391 |
| Jose Ramirez | 5 | 109 | .358 |
| Howie Kendrick | 5 | 88 | .364 |
All - As it can be seen with most of these players, the key to putting up great stolen-base numbers is the player needs to be on base. Davis, Villar, Marte and Nunez have displayed speed in the past. This season they are getting the opportunity.
Melvin Upton Jr. - Upton is the glaring exception to the above rule with his .264 OBP the last 30 days. Eleven of his 15 total stolen bases has come in those 30 days. If he can post an OBP closer to his career .323 level (.328 in '15) his stolen bases could tick up even more. I may inquire if his owner is willing to trade him with the chance of more stolen bases to come.
Eduardo Nunez - How people value Nunez will be interesting going into 2017. We have just over another three months of data to collect on him to make a better assessment.
STRIKEOUTS
| PLAYER | K/GS | ERA | GS | IP |
| Clayton Kershaw | 8.8 | 1.40 | 6 | 45 |
| Max Scherzer | 8.7 | 2.30 | 6 | 43 |
| Matt Shoemaker | 8.6 | 2.19 | 5 | 37 |
| Stephen Strasburg | 8.6 | 3.09 | 5 | 32 |
| Noah Syndergaard | 8.2 | 1.42 | 5 | 31 |
| Jacob deGrom | 8.2 | 2.81 | 5 | 32 |
| Jon Lester | 8.0 | 1.24 | 5 | 36 |
| Lance McCullers | 7.8 | 3.64 | 5 | 29 |
| Jake Arrieta | 7.6 | 2.70 | 5 | 30 |
| Archie Bradley | 7.6 | 3.82 | 5 | 30 |
| John Lackey | 7.5 | 2.04 | 6 | 39 |
| Julio Teheran | 7.5 | 2.57 | 6 | 42 |
| Justin Verlander | 7.4 | 2.75 | 5 | 36 |
| Aaron Sanchez | 7.4 | 3.62 | 5 | 32 |
All - I almost did the K/9 or strikeout leaderboard, but I went with strikeouts per game. "K/9" overvalues pitchers who don't go far into games. Strikeouts undervalue pitchers who have thrown one fewer start over the time frame.
Matt Shoemaker - While most of this list is no surprise to anyone, seeing Shoemaker at No. 3 is surprising. The key is his increased (see below) use of his split-change which generates 22-percent swinging strikes and a 47.0 GB%.
He is riding this pitch to new heights. The key for him to have continued success is to see how hitters adapt.
Archie Bradley - Bradley is getting strikeouts, but he has too many apparent warts. He has never gotten his walks under control, posting a 4.9 BB/9 in the majors this year. An additional issue in that he only has two pitches, fastball and curve. He likely will struggle the second and third time through the order. Finally, I am not buying the 25.0 K% because of his 8.6 SwStr%. Historically, a pitcher's K% = 2*SwStr% so Bradley's K% may end up closer to 15 percent (which is near his '15 value of 14.3 percent).
WHIP
| PLAYER | WHIP | BABIP | BB% | ERA |
| Clayton Kershaw | 0.62 | .218 | 1.9 | 1.40 |
| Julio Teheran | 0.64 | .128 | 4.6 | 2.57 |
| Zach Davies | 0.71 | .181 | 4.0 | 1.34 |
| Max Scherzer | 0.74 | .213 | 4.4 | 2.30 |
| Zack Greinke | 0.78 | .195 | 4.2 | 1.60 |
| Madison Bumgarner | 0.81 | .212 | 6.1 | 1.04 |
| Jake Peavy | 0.82 | .235 | 4.4 | 1.76 |
| Michael Fulmer | 0.82 | .151 | 10.3 | 0.27 |
| Johnny Cueto | 0.83 | .216 | 5.8 | 1.00 |
| Justin Verlander | 0.83 | .244 | 3.7 | 2.75 |
Zach Davies - Davies has gone with a simple approach to turn around his season, quit walking batters. His monthly BB/9 has gone from 4.7 to 2.5 to 1.6. Besides the low walk rate, Davies is known for his groundball nature (51.0 career GB%), so if luck is on his side, he can have a great stretch of games. The issue with him occurs when he doesn't have the best of luck and a singles train comes rolling over him.
Jake Peavy - He has improved mainly by following the simple rule of striking out more batters and walking less. His monthly K%-BB% has gone from 9 to 11 to 18 percent. Looking for any changes to his game, he has decided to drop his slider and uses his cutter more and more.
Michael Fulmer - The results for him the last month have been great, but he somehow ends up on this list with a BB% rate higher than 10. I think there may be some regression headed his way with his ERA at 2.43, and his ERA estimators all closer to 4.00.
