Through the first 23 games of the 2019 season, the Seattle Mariners are off to an impressive 15-8 start and they are using their power to lead them to early season success.
Seattle leads the league in home runs, blasting 49 of them. It shouldn't surprise many as they have some big-time boppers like Edwin Encarnacion, Jay Bruce, Mitch Haniger, Ryon Healy, Domingo Santana and Daniel Vogelbach.
Vogelbach is one of the biggest surprises around the majors to start the season. As I'm writing this, he actually just hit a 400 foot home run off Trevor Cahill, his 8th of the season.
To go along with his eight home runs, Daniel is posting an impressive .327/.472/.836.
2019 Fantasy Baseball Daniel Vogelbach
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The Seattle Mariners acquired Daniel Vogelbach at the 2016 MLB Tradeline, in the Mike Montgomery deal with the Chicago Cubs.
Last season in AAA, Vogelbach played 84 games, drawing 77 walks, while striking out just 59 times.
Overall in 342 career AAA games, he's drawn 250 walks and struck out just 258 times, with a combined .411 OBP.
He has proven to have a great eye, which is now translating at the major league level.
Early Season Success
No doubt about it. ⚾🚀#TrueToTheBlue x Daniel Vogelbach pic.twitter.com/cQ0xsaVdek
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 7, 2019
With Mallex Smith, Mitch Haniger and Domingo Santana covering the outfield positions, Jay Bruce at first base and Edwin Encarnacion handling the DH duties, there were not a lot of opportunities for Vogelbach to get playing time. Over the first nine games of the season, Vogelbach drew just two starts and getting 7 total at-bats.
From April 7th through April 11th Vogelbach drew five consecutive starts at DH and boy did he take full advantage.
Vogelbach went 8-19, with four home runs, three doubles, nine RBI, six runs and he drew five walks.
Since this stretch, Vogelbach has been a fixture in the Mariners lineup and depending on who is in the lineup that night, he is usually batting cleanup or fifth.
Needless to say, Vogelbach has become a vital part to this Mariners team.
Rest of Season Outlook
Despite just 55 at-bats on the year, Vogelbach ranks fifth in home runs with eight.
His .472 OBP is fourth behind Mike Trout, Carlos Santana and Cody Bellinger.
Vogelbach's .836 slugging comes with a MLB best .509 ISO. Yup, even better than the home run leader himself, Christian Yelich.
Daniel's 1.309 OPS trails just Yelich and Bellinger.
Although Vogelbach strikes out in nearly 24% of his at-bats, he offsets that with a 21% walk rate. Only Mike Trout draws a walk more often.
Obviously, this is a big reason his OBP is nearly .500, and the Mariners have no choice but to continue to find him playing time every day,
All that being said and yet Vogelbach is still under 70% owned in Yahoo leagues. Who knows, maybe that is all the active leagues but if he is available in your league, you better go add him now!
I would go as far as to say, go see if you can dangle a more well-known player who is struggling in a trade for Vogelbach. Many owners have never heard of him before this year, but this is not a surprise for anybody who has followed Vogelbach's minor league career.
Check out the rest of our 2019 Fantasy Baseball content from our great team of writers.
