Kansas City @ Texas picks

According to the leading projection system (THE BAT X), Bobby Witt Jr. ranks as the 9th-best hitter in Major League Baseball.. Bobby Witt Jr. is penciled in 2nd in the batting order today.. Globe Life Field has the 8th-shortest fences in MLB.. Compared to last season, Bobby Witt Jr. has improved his ability to hit the ball at a launch angle ideal for base hits, increasing his percentage of balls hit between -4° and 26° from 43.7% to 48.9% this season.. The leading projection system (THE BAT X) estimates Bobby Witt Jr.'s true offensive ability to be a .377, implying that he has had some very poor luck this year given the .033 difference between that figure and his actual .344 wOBA.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) ranks Jake Burger as MLB's 20th-best home run hitter.. Globe Life Field has the 8th-shortest fences in MLB.. Home field advantage generally improves batter metrics across the board, and Jake Burger will hold that advantage in today's game.. Jake Burger has been unlucky this year, posting a .285 wOBA despite the leading projection system (THE BAT X) estimating his true talent level to be .342 — a .057 gap.. Utilizing Statcast data, Jake Burger ranks in the 79th percentile for power according to the leading projection system (THE BAT X)'s version of Expected Home Runs per 600 plate appearances this year at 23.900.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Maikel Garcia in the 94th percentile when it comes to his batting average skill.. Maikel Garcia is projected to hit 3rd in the lineup in today's game.. Globe Life Field has the 8th-shortest fences in MLB.. Posting a .370 wOBA (a leading indicator of offensive ability) this year, Maikel Garcia finds himself in the 91st percentile.. With a .317 batting average this year, Maikel Garcia grades out in the 95th percentile.

The Texas Rangers have been the 3rd-unluckiest offense in the game this year, according to the leading projection system (THE BAT X), and are likely to perform better the rest of the season. Globe Life Field has the 8th-shortest fences in MLB.. Playing on the road generally diminishes pitcher stats across the board due to the lack of home field advantage, which figures to be the case for Michael Wacha today.. Michael Wacha's 92.6-mph velocity on his fastball this year is a substantial 1-mph decrease from last season's 93.6-mph figure.. Michael Wacha's change-up usage has decreased by 6.4% from last year to this one (32.3% to 25.9%) .

Globe Life Field has the 8th-shortest fences in MLB.. Kyle Isbel will have the handedness advantage over Shawn Armstrong today.. In the past 7 days, Kyle Isbel's exit velocity on flyballs has seen a big rise, from 87.6-mph over the course of the season to 90.6-mph in recent games.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Wyatt Langford in the 96th percentile when assessing his overall offensive skill.. Wyatt Langford is projected to bat 2nd in the lineup in this matchup.. Globe Life Field has the 8th-shortest fences in MLB.. Wyatt Langford will have the benefit of the home field advantage in today's matchup, which ought to bolster all of his stats.. The leading projection system (THE BAT X) estimates Wyatt Langford's true offensive skill to be a .357, providing some evidence that he has had bad variance on his side this year given the .037 discrepancy between that figure and his actual .320 wOBA.

Globe Life Field has the 8th-shortest fences in MLB.. Home field advantage typically bolsters batter metrics across the board, and Jonah Heim will hold that advantage today.. Jonah Heim's ability to hit the ball at a BABIP-optimizing launch angle (between -4° and 26°) has improved of late, going from 42.5% on the season to 66.7% over the past 7 days.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) ranks Jake Burger as MLB's 20th-best home run hitter.. Globe Life Field has the 8th-shortest fences in MLB.. Home field advantage generally improves batter metrics across the board, and Jake Burger will hold that advantage in today's game.. Jake Burger has been unlucky this year, posting a .285 wOBA despite the leading projection system (THE BAT X) estimating his true talent level to be .342 — a .057 gap.. Utilizing Statcast data, Jake Burger ranks in the 79th percentile for power according to the leading projection system (THE BAT X)'s version of Expected Home Runs per 600 plate appearances this year at 23.900.

Globe Life Field has the 8th-shortest fences in MLB.. Jac Caglianone will receive the benefit of the platoon advantage against Shawn Armstrong in today's game.. In the last 14 days, Jac Caglianone's maximum exit velocity (a strong proxy for recent form and raw power) has been 113.6-mph, which qualifies as one of the hardest-hit balls in Major League Baseball.. In the last 14 days, Jac Caglianone's swing has been well optimized for base hits, notching a 60% of balls hit with a launch angle in the optimal range of -4° to 26°.

Globe Life Field has the 8th-shortest fences in MLB.. Hitting from the opposite that Shawn Armstrong throws from, John Rave will have the upper hand today.. In the past week, John Rave has displayed impressive power, recording a a 25% Barrel% (a reliable standard to study power).. Compiling a 92.2-mph average exit velocity in the past week's worth of games, John Rave has been in great form lately.