Fantasy Baseball: 5 Hitters Who Must Build Off a Strong Second Half

Brandon Crawford, SS, San Francisco Giants

To say the San Francisco Giants' offense was anemic in 2017 doesn't exactly do them justice. Sure, AT&T Park isn't the best place for scoring runs, but they were bad everywhere, evidenced by their league-worst team wRC+ of 83 and .296 wOBA.

With a season-long triple slash of .253/.305/.403 and a wRC+ of 86, shortstop Brandon Crawford was a part of this offensive futility. However, it could've been worse without a solid second half from him.

After being more of a defensively-minded shortstop for the early portion of his career, Crawford made significant jumps on offense, posting a wRC+ greater than 100 in each year from 2014-16. He took a step back this year overall mostly because of a horrific first half that led to a .225/.266/.369 triple slash and a 63 wRC+. Thankfully for him, though, those numbers improved after the All-Star break to .283/.348/.441 and 111, respectively.

While his fly-ball rate (36.7% to 31.8%) and hard-hit rate (34.9% to 30.1%) decreased during this time, we're not looking at Crawford as an elite power bat at his position -- he's typically good for 10-20 homers, but his career ISO of .143 shows us power is something we shouldn't be depending on him for.

What's notable about his season is that his line-drive rate saw a significant increase (16.5% to 22.6%). And despite a drop in hard-hit rate, he did improve his soft-hit rate (21.1% to 17.4%) while being a little more selective -- his swing rate went from 53.7% in the first half to 48.9% in the second half.