Ketel Marte is a good example of someone whose season-long stats don't represent how well he's playing. And we should be looking to buy while that's still the case.

Through 356 plate appearances this year, Marte is slashing .238/.303/.420, equating to a 92 wRC+. That's not bad to begin with for a middle infielder in his age-24 season. The recent data, though, is phenomenal.

Something seemed to click for Marte toward the end of May. That's when the hard contact initially ramped up. If we round things off and look from the start of June on, Marte is rocking a .269/.347/.585 slash with a 142 wRC+. That's a sample of just 147 plate appearances, which isn't big enough to draw major conclusions, but he has gotten there with a 10.9% walk rate, 12.9% strikeout rate, and a 42.9% hard-hit rate. Those are all marks that should stabilize over this period of time.

Marte entered the All-Star break in a bit of a funk, going 1-for-16 over his final 6 games. But he still had as many walks as strikeouts in that time, so we should be looking to snag Marte now in case those mid-season gains carry over.