There is a new number one this morning atop the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings. Joey Gallo of the Rangers moves into the top slot as he goes one for two with a home run and three walks in an 8-4, eleven innings Oakland win. I find this quite amazing. Gallo represents the low dimensional offensive player; he walks and hits home runs. This year, those two strengths are enough to make up for the .239 BA, as he is getting on base at a .402 clip, having already drawn 72 walks. He hit 24 home runs and six doubles, giving him a .522 slugging percentage and a .283 isolated power.

Note, however, that the rankings are based on both long and short term performance. In his last twenty nine games, Gallo hit for average as well as power. Nothing else changed; he still strikes out a ton, he still walks a ton, and a high percentage of his hits go for extra bases, and he still doesn’t hit doubles. His slash line for this period, however, is .308/.479/.813. That allowed him to climb to the top of the leaderboard.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.of the Blue Jays drops to second place as he draws a walk in four trips in a 5-2 win over the Orioles. Third place belongs to Justin Turner of the Dodgers, who goes three for four with a grand slam in a ridiculous 22-1 win over the hapless Diamondbacks. The Dodgers hit eight home runs in the game, including two by A.J. Pollock who went four for four with two walks for a game score of 92, the highest of the day.

Fourth place belongs to Manny Machado of the Padres, 0 for 4 in a 3-0 Rockies win. Trea Turner of the Nationals rounds out the top five as he goes one for four with a walk in a 10-4 Giants win.