Fantasy Baseball: 7 Hitters Whose Strikeout-Rate Trends Should Have Your Attention

Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays​

Don't look now, but Evan Longoria currently has the 12th-worst strikeout rate in the majors.

We have come to appreciate Longoria as a steady counting-stat producer over the past four seasons, but it's easy to forget he does have a bit more batting-average floor than your average star hitter, having logged a pedestrian .253 average (across 700 plate appearances, no less) as recently as 2014.

The 33.8-percent punchout rate doesn't exactly spell doom for Longo's fantasy stock at large. His sustained track record of strong contact trends suggest some positive regression should be in the offing, as does his terrific 41-plus percent hard-contact rate on the young season.

Still, it bears noting that owners who penciled the Rays veteran in as a plus in the average category might have been a bit hasty. His current spike in swinging-strike rate could be an early sign of his skills depreciating, and a return to that recent lull of .253, or perhaps worse, isn't out of the realm of possible outcomes.