Eric Hosmer’s Hacking
Eric Hosmer is a trendy fantasy pick this spring, and for good reason. The Royals first baseman batted .293/.334/.465 during his age-21 season, providing decent power (19 homers) and uncommon speed (11 steals) for a guy at the low end of the defensive spectrum. Hosmer’s youth, contact ability, athleticism and promise of more pop from his 6-foot-4, 230 frame have caused him to shoot up the draft board, placing eighth among first basemen and just outside the top 50 overall in MockDraftCentral’s latest ADP Report.
Hosmer could bust out in 2012 — the fans are betting on it, projecting a .299/.359/.501 line, 25 homers and double-digit steals. But for Hosmer to progress from good young hitter to true fantasy stud, he’ll need to hone his strike-zone discipline. Specifically, he needs a cure for a serious case of hack-itis against the heat and sliders/cutters.
The lefty swinger drew 34 free passes in 563 plate appearances as a rookie. But that actually overstates Hosmer’s patience, as seven of those were intentional walks. If you subtract those outside lobs from the equation, Hosmer’s walk rate was 4.3% instead of 6%. That was one of the 20 lowest figures among 145 qualified hitters in 2011.
Not surprisingly, you’ll find Hosmer’s name toward the top of the chase list. He went after 36.3% of pitches thrown out of the strike zone, compared to the 28.6% average. That made him one of the game’s 15 most hack-happy hitters:
| Name | O-Swing% |
|---|---|
| Vladimir Guerrero | 45.2% |
| Alfonso Soriano | 43.9% |
| Miguel Olivo | 42.1% |
| Mark Trumbo | 41.0% |
| Adam Jones | 40.4% |
| Delmon Young | 40.2% |
| Alex Gonzalez | 40.2% |
| Yuniesky Betancourt | 38.0% |
| Jeff Francoeur | 37.8% |
| Erick Aybar | 37.1% |
| Robinson Cano | 36.8% |
| Josh Hamilton | 36.7% |
| Adrian Beltre | 36.4% |
| Eric Hosmer | 36.3% |
As that list shows, some guys like Robinson Cano, Josh Hamilton and Adrian Beltre manage to rake with a huge strike zone by making lots of contact and hitting for elite power. Hosmer has the contact part down (14.6 K%), but not he’s not a big-time slugger — at least not yet. He would be better served by laying off some of these junk pitches and putting himself in a position to see more hitter’s counts. Hosmer’s wide zone meant that he fell behind the pitcher in 35.1% of his plate appearances, well above the 31.7% average for American League batters.
Pitchers seemed well aware of Hosmer’s tendency to chase, putting just 46.6% of their offerings in the zone against him (the league average was 49.8%). Hosmer was especially jumpy against four-seam fastballs. He didn’t go clubbing on low pitches all that much, but he stretched the strike zone on the sides and especially on high heat:
Hosmer’s swings vs. four-seam fastballs
Source: TexasLeaguers.com
Hosmer chased 33% of four-seamers thrown out of the zone, according to Joe Lefkowitz’s Pitch F/X Tool. The league average, per THT’s Harry Pavlidis, is about 23%.
Outside of four-seamers, Hosmer was also a free-swinger against sliders (32%, 30% average) and cutters (36%, 28% average). Most of his chases on sliders came on pitches at the shins and ankles:
Hosmer’s swings vs. sliders
Source: TexasLeaguers.com
Going after those low breaking balls seemingly hurt him in the power department: Hosmer hit a ground ball 58% of the time that he put a slider or cutter in play, way above the 45% average.
This look at Hosmer’s shortcomings at the plate isn’t meant to be a condemnation of those spending an important pick on him. That Hosmer managed to hit 14% better than the league average at an age when most players are in A-Ball speaks to his talent, and it’s to be expected that someone who turned 22 this past October isn’t close to being a finished product. But better plate discipline, particularly against fastballs and sliders/cutters, would put him in favorable counts and let him tap into his power potential. That, in turn, would go a long way toward reaching fans’ expectations for 2012 and eventually emerging as a star-level first baseman.
A recent graduate of Duquesne University, David Golebiewski is a contributing writer for Fangraphs, The Pittsburgh Sports Report and Baseball Analytics. His work for Inside Edge Scouting Services has appeared on ESPN.com and Yahoo.com, and he was a fantasy baseball columnist for Rotoworld from 2009-2010. He recently contributed an article on Mike Stanton's slugging to The Hardball Times Annual 2012. Contact David at david.golebiewski@gmail.com and check out his work at Journalist For Hire.
A lot of umpires force rookies to swing at pitches that would be called balls for other batters. Hosmer had better walk rates in the minors. I don’t think he will suddenly break out and he could even have a sophomore slump as pitchers start to get a book on him, but it’s a solid bet he will improve with time.
I wouldn’t get too worried about rookies who swing at a lot of pitches because they are kind of forced to by the unwritten rules of baseball.
That doesn’t make any sense at all.
Actually makes a lot of sense if you’ve watched a game or two 🙂
That said the Royals seems to coach hacking and go after players who do: Frenchie and Yuni as examples. Heck, they gave Pedro Feliz a minor league contract last year
This is meant as a reply to Oregon Nut. Don’t know why there is no button to reply to his comment.
Kevin Seitzer most certainly does not teach hacking. There is a difference between acquiring hitters with bad plate discipline and actively promoting aggressiveness as an organizational hitting philosophy. Seitzer teaches patience. The problem in organizational philosophy is that Moore acquires hitters with poor plate discipline, whom they try to teach plate discipline to at the major league level. That rarely works.
I call for research on that. Umpires have a different strike zone for rookies? Or in some other way force rookies to swing at more pitches?
We’ve got PitchFx and stuff, can that be verified?
Yeah, exactly. It should show up in the data. But even then, how do you parse the data for rookie-hacking, as opposed something caused by umpires? This stinks of unfalsifiable, not because it’s right but because you could insist either way.
Well the most direct way would be to reach over the catcher and grab the surprised rookie’s bat, of course.
But I agree, if we look at all called strikes on rookies vs. veterans we should be able to see a difference in the width of the zone, if it exists.
@Oliver you can look at called strikes on rookies, no?
While you may be able to find more called strikes on rookies, how much of that is the rookie having been pressing/hacking at the plate and the ump no longer giving them the benefit of the doubt vs an umpire’s preconceived notion of what a rookie SHOULD be swinging at?
I’ve seen a lot of guys who are notoriously disciplined at the plate who have to take a fastball down the middle to get a called strike, while the ‘hackers’ will get anything called a strike if it’s remotely close to the plate.
Even with data to verify that Rookies get more called strikes, this could be a case of the chicken and the egg.
+1; This makes perfect sense. Not only do umps have wider strike zones for rooks (esp vs. veteran SP), players like Hoz, Moose and Goldschmidt are trying to make a name for themselves which has a tendency to lead to reaching at bad pitches.