Kole Calhoun (OF, LAA) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues

OWNED IN: 12% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Over the last two weeks, Cole Kalhoun Kole Calhoun has been extremely productive. The 30-year-old collected four home runs en route to a .296/.375/.778 line. During this period, Kalhoun Calhoun hit fly balls on more than half of his contact, and was rewarded with a completely unsustainable 40% HR/FB rate. So, is this a return to form for a once budding star or just a very good blip on the radar

The 2018 season hasn’t been kind to Calhoun. Nine homers on 283 plate appearances actually look better than he deserves, what with his .131 ISO and .185/.237/315 batting line. He’s been a below replacement hitter by a pretty wide margin on the year and spent time on the disabled list earlier in the season. It wasn’t until Calhoun returned from the DL with a major adjustment to his swing that he began to have success at the plate again. Fangraphs.com Rahul Setty did a pretty interesting write-up on his mechanical changes that I highly recommend you read, but the TL;DR is that he’s putting the ball on the ground waaaaaay less, which corresponds to the dramatically improved production.

If Calhoun’s changes hold, he’s a solid no. 4 or no. 5 OF in shallow leagues. He still strikes out a lot and doesn’t walk as much, but a line of .270/.330/.450 with another 10-12 home runs is a perfectly reasonable expectation for the rest of 2018.