![24 August 2016: Arizona Diamondbacks First base Paul Goldschmidt (44) [7900] slides back to first as Atlanta Braves First base Freddie Freeman (5) [7105] holds him on during a game between Atlanta Braves and the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase field. (Photo by Kevin French/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/fa04a1ab6b19f883f4d499af9de3d01d3b86f09bb1c438aaead386c2dec98a73.jpg "24 August 2016: Arizona Diamondbacks First base Paul Goldschmidt (44) [7900] slides back to first as Atlanta Braves First base Freddie Freeman (5) [7105] holds him on during a game between Atlanta Braves and the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase field. (Photo by Kevin French/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)")
10. Brandon Belt, San Francisco Giants
Belt’s last two years of dealing with injuries has been troublesome. Concussions in 2017 and an appendectomy in 2018 have kept him out of the lineup more often than not, and as a result have affected his performance.
In 2018 Belt slashed just .253/.342/.414 hitting 14 homers and just 18 doubles, the fewest amount of doubles in his career (min. 100 games).
But just a couple years ago Belt could have been as high as five or six on this list. In 2016 the Giants first baseman slashed .275/.394/.474 with 18 home runs and 41 doubles, an effort that earned the the now 30-year-old his only All-Star berth.
Further to that point, that year Belt hit the ball on the barrel nearly seven percent of the time, which might not seem that impressive until you consider by that metric he was a top-50 hitter in all of baseball.
If Belt can get shake his injuries then he can easily move up this list again, as even with his injuries he was able to make hard contact over 40% of the time and only hit the ball on the ground 24% of the time.
9. Jesus Aguilar, Milwaukee Brewers
Through the first half of the season it looked like Jesus Aguilar was going to be in the MVP race. He entered the All-Star break with a slash line of .298/.373/.621 with 24 home runs. Also in that vein is that the Brewers were in the thick of the playoff hunt and Aguilar was seemingly spurring that push.
But the second half was not as great for Aguilar. It was still solid sure, as .245/.324/.436 isn’t a terrible line, but it is not the MVP type numbers that he put up in the first half.
Hurting Aguilar’s case is that it’s really only his second solid season and judging by his second half in 2018 we can assume that pitchers may be figuring him out.
But for the Brewers, if “figuring him out” means they still get a .436 slugging percentage and .760 OPS from Aguilar I’m sure they will take it, as the one carrying Milwaukee is Christian Yelich so they aren’t exactly relying on Aguilar to win them a championship.