Some Stats for the Off Day

striker42

striker42

Well-known member
Since off days are boring, here are some stats to pass the time:

-Ronald Acuna is hitting .335...and he's been unlucky. His xBA is .347, best in the game by more than 20 points.

-Two players are tied for the highest average EV in baseball at 95.2 MPH...they're Ronald Acuna and Matt Olson.

-Matt Olson currently has the hardest hit ball of the year at 118.6 MPH.

-Spencer Strider leads baseball with 14.44 K/9, more than 2 K/9 higher than the next highest pitcher. Gausman is second with 12.05. The difference between Strider and Gausman is the same as the difference between Gausman and Charlie Morton (20th ranked K/9).

-Among pitchers with at least 200 balls in play, Strider is second in baseball (first in the NL) in xwOBA at .275. He's 0.001 off the lead.


Anyone else got any fun stats?
 
it is fun to go through Strider's savant page.

His Change up is death.. doesn't use it much, but no one can touch it really.
 
What Strider and Harris are doing in their sophomore seasons after getting the extensions is the best development of the season (with Arcia emerging as a bonafide starter)
 
I find it interesting how AA has assembled this team. He concentrates more on pure physical tools (EV and K rate) and works from there. The EV rates in particular are incredible and it translates into a great offense.
 
Riley and Olson went back to back for the 6th time this year. Sets a team record for back to backs by a duo. Chipper/Boone had 5 from 99.
 
Acuna to me if fascinating. He is basically objectively a top 2-3 hitter in the game, maybe the best. He hits the ball harder than anyone in the game. He is hitting the ball harder than he ever has before on average and he is having the best year of his career. The K rate is down to shockingly good levels of improvement and taking into account all of his improvements, he has gone from a ~280 career hitter to hitting 335 and arguably should be hitting 350 with any luck. Put simply - this is the best he has ever been.

The only area to be nitpicky is his fly ball rate / ground ball rate - which was historically 30% and now is 22%. That means for a 650 ab season, he is basically putting 50 less balls in the air.

It comes across as greedy given he is already probably the best player in the game putting aside Ohtani (and factoring in age, is probably easily the objective #1 player in the game for the next 5+ year outlook) - yet crazy as it sounds, it feels like there is another gear for Acuna where he could be doing what he is doing, only hitting 45-50+ homers. He is that talented. Pre injury he had basically become a 50-homer type of pace consistently, so clearly he has that capability.

The part I don't know enough to have any view though on is if the improvement we've seen is actually a function of cutting down a touch on fly ball rate, strike-outs, etc. in which case is the question more to take your pick i.e. do you want the 330+ average with ~35-40 homer pace Acuna, or the 280+ average with 50 homer pace Acuna. Obviously ideally could get both.

I'll reiterate, this is the equivalence of Lebron winning an MVP in his prime as an all-time great and then in the offseason working on the post-up game, 3-point shooting, etc. Point being Acuna is objectively as good as it gets and if he does what he is doing now, you take that 10 out of 10 times. He is just so crazy talented, that there is a feeling that he could basically do what he is doing, only hitting 30% more bombs.
 
I wonder if MLB will revisit the pitcher disengagement rule in the offseason. If they don't, and this is the status quo going forward, Acuna might rack up some truly staggering stolen base totals by the end of his career. He might steal 75 bases this season, and while speed and athleticism tend to fade pretty quickly, a few seasons like that can put him on a glide path to some huge numbers.
 
I think bigger bases have more play in his numbers than the pick off moves.. He is typically going well before a pitcher breaks the rubber twice. But having a bigger bag to slide too and to slide back too, helps get that little bit of an edge to make numbers pop.
 
I’ve got a stat for you :

The New York Mets and their wretched fan base are 100% buckets of suck —and along with the Phillies and Nats are on pace to break all MLB records for buckets of suck in the same season.
 
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