5 MLB Hitters Quietly Having a Tremendous Start to the Second Half

Mikie Mahtook, OF, Detroit Tigers

J.D. Martinez is no longer on the Detroit Tigers, but it's not like they don't have any replacements who also know how to hit the ball hard. Mikie Mahtook is the perfect example -- it'll be tough to match the 47.0% hard-hit rate Martinez produced in the Motor City before leaving town, but Mahtook's 42.2% mark so far in 2017 ain't all that bad.

Mahtook has typically been used as a lefty masher -- that makes sense upon seeing his 41.0% fly-ball rate and 50.8% (!) hard-hit rate against southpaws -- but he's played every day for Detroit since the All-Star break, and he's been on fire.

The right-handed hitting outfielder is slashing .395/.442/.711 through 43 second-half plate appearances, leading to a very healthy 201 wRC+ and .470 wOBA. It's amazing what kind of stuff happens when a player gets in the lineup on a daily basis, right?

A couple things will have to change as statistics start to normalize, though. Mahtook's line-drive rate has risen three percentage points, but his ground-ball rate and fly-ball rate have both gotten worse, while his homer-to-fly-ball ratio has nearly doubled. With a second-half hard-hit rate that's almost identical to what he produced in the first half, his .448 BABIP should start dipping to a more normal level rather soon if these trends hold.