Christian Walker (1B, ARI) - Week 11 Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: One of the bright spots in the Arizona Diamondbacks batting lineup this year has been the play of first baseman Christian Walker. It’s been a long back-and-forth journey for the 28-year-old to supplant himself in an everyday big league lineup, but his hard work has finally paid off. In his first full year at the big league level, Walker has impressed across the board with 11 homers, 33 runs, 25 RBI, and three thefts while slashing .259/.328/.491. He’s riding a hot streak of late as well with three bombs, seven RBI, and a .361 batting average over his past 10 games, perhaps hinting that his play so far is only the tip of the iceberg.

The biggest knock against Walker lies in his high-strikeout bat. Punching out an ugly 29.6% of the time, this inability to put the ball in play limits his ceiling for average, but from what we’ve seen him accomplish in power numbers, it is worth the trade-off. Walker’s 16.6% Barrel% and 52.3% Hard Hit% have him ranked in the top 5% of the league in these categories with the latter placing him in the top 3%. His 28.5% fly-ball rate is also well above the major league average (21.8%) which is a salivating recipe for the balls to continue to fly out of the yard.

Chase Field ranks in the bottom-third for HR Factor for right-handers, which isn’t an ideal scenario, but batting fifth in a lineup scoring 5.14 runs per game will keep his counting stats climbing. Walker has provided the D’backs with strong numbers to help fill the void that was left by Paul Goldschmidt this offseason, and he will continue to be an asset the rest of the way even at a power-heavy position.