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\\THREAD #Phillies Rhys Hoskins has been terrible in 2020... except he hasn't and is probably getting SUPER UNLUCKY...
He's been cheap and in great spots the past few days but has been failing, and now everyone is saying "Welp, can't playing Hoskins, gotta X him out of DFS lineups"... but I don't think that's the right move based on the data.
His strikeout and walk rates are both MUCH BETTER than previous years. They won't stay this much better, but this isn't a guy who's actually struggling.
Source: https://www.fangraphs.com/players/rhys-hoskins/16472/stats?position=1B/OF
Source: https://www.fangraphs.com/players/rhys-hoskins/16472/stats?position=1B/OF
The issue is he has 0 home runs... but his Statcast numbers look great! Everything except Barrel%, which probably explains the 0 HRs, but when his Exit Velos and Launch Angles are look good, it's may just be small sample bad luck that they haven't combined for barrels yet.
Hoskins's Exit Velocity on Flyballs is *UP* 3 mph. His % of air balls hit 100+ mph is *UP* 3% from 2019. His average EV is the same as always. His Sweet Spot Launch Angle is *UP* 5 degrees... and his "Too High" (38°+%) LA% is down!
Source: https://evanalytics.com/mlb/leaderboards/statcast-stats
Source: https://evanalytics.com/mlb/leaderboards/statcast-stats
IOW, Rhys Hoskins is probably getting VERY UNLUCKY. It's only two weeks into the season, and while we shouldn't overreact to bad performance even when the peripherals are bad, we ESPECIALLY shouldn't overreact when the peripheral are great... career highs in some cases!
Maybe there's something all of these numbers are missing, but it seems much more likely Hoskins is about to turn things around. My advice: play him in DFS and trade for him in season-long.
