Who's Hot and Who's Not...according to Bill James

Several years ago, Bill James devised a system that measures how hot or cold a player currently is. And it's as easy to understand as a thermometer. His temperature rating scales a player’s hotness or coldness on the same scale as Fahrenheit temperatures, where players start at a room temperature of 72 degrees and then increase or decrease from there based on how well they have performed of late.

Let’s take a look at the hottest hitters through yesterday’s games:

Jose Altuve is the closest batter to 100 degrees. He has two or more hits in seven consecutive days, including four doubles in the most recent three games. Josh Reddick can’t boast multiple hits over his last seven games, but he does have an old-fashioned seven-game hitting streak. Denard Span’s hot streak is more compact. He has seven hits over his last two days, including two home runs and four doubles.

One name noticeably absent from the current hottest hitter list is Adrian Gonzalez. No one was hotter than Gonzalez to start the season. He had 10 hits in his first 13 at-bats of the season including five home runs. He’s cooled off somewhat from that torrid start, but his peak temperature of 129 degrees is not only the best by any hitter so far this season—the highest peak temperature by any player since the start of the decade.

Meanwhile, here are the coldest hitters through yesterday’s games:

Jorge Soler has some separation from the rest of the field of cold hitters. He has just two hits in his most recent 26 at-bats with 15 strikeouts. Drew Stubbs has been a part-time player for the Rockies this season and is hitless in his 20 at-bats this season. Chris Iannetta and Mike Zunino are hitting .093 and .121, respectively. The good news for Zunino is that his .161 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is the fifth lowest in baseball and is 86 points below his career level. His can be expected to bounce back moving forward.