Fantasy Baseball: 7 Hitters Whose Strikeout-Rate Trends Should Have Your Attention

Joey Gallo, Texas Rangers

Once a coveted elite prospect, Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo is veering dangerously close to becoming a punchline.

Granted, his current 36.5-percent strikeout rate, tied for fifth-worst across the majors, certainly comes as an improvement on the 46.3-percent mark he carried during his 36-game cup of coffee with the Rangers in 2015. It's also a big difference from the utterly futile 63.3-percent rate that tainted his 17-game stint with the team last season.

But the worry here is that a mid-30-percent punch-out rate might very well represent a reasonable best-case for the young power bat, putting his standard-league fantasy relevance in serious jeopardy. Sure, Gallo continues to display a shrewd batting eye that has distinguished him as a potential star-in-waiting, with his below-average swing rate and resultant 13.5-percent walk rate making him less of a liability in OBP leagues.

Still, Gallo's struggles with making contact are becoming increasingly difficult to write off as mere growing pains -- his contact rate is up about 14 percentage points from 2015, but the 65.7-percent contact mark is still seventh-worst across the majors.

It's early yet, both for this season and for Gallo's career, but it's not hard to see him topping off at a Chris Carter-type upside, making him a rather uneasy hold candidate for standard-leaguers.