The 2015 Hitter xBABIP Underachievers
Seemingly every year, we try to develop a new hitter xBABIP equation. Obviously, the goal is to improve upon the previous iteration because BABIP is really hard to predict. We can be reasonably sure that some hitters own high BABIP, average BABIP or low BABIP skills, but that’s about it. In any given year, the metric could swing wildly. As more granular data continues to be made available to us, we could use it to keep bettering our ability to predict BABIP and understand which underlying skills drive it.
I took a stab at it a year ago when I worked on “Developing the Bestest xBABIP Equation Yet” (FG+). It certainly was the best yet, but we still had more than enough room for improvement. Alex Chamberlain took on the challenge and made some changes to my formula by incorporating the new Soft%/Med%/Hard% and Pull%/Cent%/Oppo% classifications. The r-squared was only a slight upgrade compared to my results, but it was cleaner and I liked it better. So it’s now the official xBABIP equation of the Pod Projections.
So which fantasy relevant players underperformed their xBABIP marks the most in 2015, and presumably have some significant batting average upside in 2016? Let’s find out…
| Name | BABIP | xBABIP | Diff |
| Jed Lowrie | 0.233 | 0.314 | -0.081 |
| Albert Pujols | 0.217 | 0.279 | -0.062 |
| Hanley Ramirez | 0.257 | 0.314 | -0.057 |
| Jayson Werth | 0.253 | 0.309 | -0.056 |
| Jay Bruce | 0.251 | 0.306 | -0.055 |
| Ryan Zimmerman | 0.268 | 0.318 | -0.050 |
| Jonathan Lucroy | 0.297 | 0.347 | -0.050 |
| David Ortiz | 0.264 | 0.313 | -0.049 |
| Wilson Ramos | 0.256 | 0.303 | -0.047 |
| Billy Hamilton | 0.264 | 0.310 | -0.046 |
Obviously, this was a career low BABIP for Jed Lowrie. A return to the Athletics isn’t a positive move, but he should play every day, may very well hit second, and has probably been forgotten about after an injury riddled season and being pushed aside by some young hotshot named Carlos Correa. Should yield some profit in AL-Only leagues.
For as great as his career has been offensively, Albert Pujols has rarely demonstrated above average BABIP skills. He’s a dead pull hitter and pops it up too frequently. But he’s never posted a BABIP this low! In fact, his second lowest mark was .258 just two seasons ago in 2013 and last year marked his third lowest at .265. He’s clearly moving in the wrong direction. Combined with his age and the fact that he could miss some time early after offseason foot surgery, he’s not exactly a candidate to be undervalued at draft day thanks to a suppressed BABIP.
Oh Hanley Ramirez, what a bizarre season you just endured. You redefined what it meant to be a bad fielder, you outperformed your xHR/FB, and now you have underperformed your xBABIP? What does one xDO? Hanley owns a .327 career BABIP and is hitting in a park that typically boosts BABIP, thanks to a 104 RHH singles park factor and 113 doubles factor. While I wouldn’t forecast a rebound to his career mark, especially given his age, there’s a good chance he bounced back over the .300 level again and enjoys a nicely improved batting average.
Jayson Werth is 36 and coming off an injury-riddled season. You know what that means? Opportunity! Though the steals may have finally dried up, his skills remain solid and his BABIP should jump. He actually sports the same career BABIP as Ramirez, but since he’s older and plays half his games in a less favorable park for base hits, he shouldn’t be expected to enjoy as significant a rebound.
Surprisingly, Jay Bruce is the first lefty on this list that has clearly been hurt by the shift. Over his career, he has pulled 63.1% of his ground balls and actually set a new career high in 2015 with a 70.7% pull rate. It sure makes it easy for fielders to know where to position themselves. Unfortunately, it has been far to difficult to incorporate the effects of shifting into an xBABIP equation, so these guys are going to be the outliers that might not rebound as xBABIP suggests. While I would imagine Bruce does improve somewhat, I would not bet on a .300+ mark.
I already opined that Ryan Zimmerman would be a “huge profit center for his owners” as one of the leaders in the standard deviation of distance of his fly balls and home runs. His appearance as an xBABIP underachiever makes him even more attractive as a rebound candidate. Before his .268 2015 BABIP, which easily set a new career low, Zimmerman had amazingly posted a BABIP of at least .308 for seven straight seasons. And in eight of his nine previous full seasons, he has posted a .308+ BABIP. Yes, his health has been a question mark, but since that’s going to be built into his cost, there’s going to be ample room for profit.
You know who was number one on my list of hitters with major HR/FB rate upside who also appears above? Jonathan Lucroy. Now since 2011, he has slightly underperformed his xBABIP overall and a .347 mark for a catcher who doesn’t pop up as infrequently as Joe Mauer did when he was a high BABIPer is never going to be reached. This xBABIP doesn’t so much hint at dramatic upside, but rather that Lucroy’s bat is A-OK, despite a wOBA that hit its lowest mark since 2011.
Aaaaaaand there’s that other left-hander who has been bit by the shift, David Ortiz. The ageless wonder has pulled his grounders nearly 70% of the time in each of the past two seasons, so like Bruce, cannot be expected to rebound to anywhere close to his xBABIP. This just gave me an idea for a new iteration of xBABIP that incorporates Pull% for grounders. The data is not currently available on the FG leaderboards, so I’ll see what I can do.
Wilson Ramos has dramatically underperformed his xBABIP for three seasons running now, so there must be something going on here not being captured. Perhaps one of the reasons is that he’s sloooooooooooow, as his 0.9 Spd mark ranked in a tie for dead last among qualified hitters. As we know, equations don’t perform well at the extremes, so it’s possibly that the formula doesn’t subtract enough BABIP points to account for his complete lack of speed.
And there’s my good friend Billy Hamilton! The name I will never live down after my famous second round selection of his in LABR last year. A player with his speed has no business posting a .264 BABIP. Of course, a player with his speed also has no business hitting ground balls only about 42% of the time. He should be over 50% and utilizing his speed to beat out grounders. He doesn’t possess enough power to be hitting so many fly balls. Remember what I said above about Ramos and equations handling extremes? Hamilton posted a Hard% that would have ranked fifth worst if he qualified for the leaderboard. Then again, his xBABIP in 2014 was identical to 2015, and that year his actual BABIP was .304, so maybe it was all just bad luck. He’ll be undervalued in 2016 and don’t be surprised if he finds his way onto my LABR team again (just not taken in the second round this time!).
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Because I know you’re going to ask for it, here is the entire list of hitters with at least 200 plate appearances that either underachieved their xBABIP or hit it right on the head.
| Name | BABIP | xBABIP | Diff |
| Eric Campbell | 0.230 | 0.343 | -0.113 |
| Will Middlebrooks | 0.237 | 0.320 | -0.083 |
| Jed Lowrie | 0.233 | 0.314 | -0.081 |
| Jon Jay | 0.246 | 0.322 | -0.076 |
| Alexi Amarista | 0.232 | 0.306 | -0.074 |
| Chase Utley | 0.230 | 0.303 | -0.073 |
| Justin Smoak | 0.254 | 0.321 | -0.067 |
| Sam Fuld | 0.235 | 0.297 | -0.062 |
| Albert Pujols | 0.217 | 0.279 | -0.062 |
| Casey McGehee | 0.243 | 0.303 | -0.060 |
| Cliff Pennington | 0.253 | 0.313 | -0.060 |
| Ryan Howard | 0.272 | 0.331 | -0.059 |
| Luis Valbuena | 0.235 | 0.294 | -0.059 |
| Jose Ramirez | 0.232 | 0.290 | -0.058 |
| Nick Swisher | 0.228 | 0.286 | -0.058 |
| Hanley Ramirez | 0.257 | 0.314 | -0.057 |
| Jayson Werth | 0.253 | 0.309 | -0.056 |
| Jay Bruce | 0.251 | 0.306 | -0.055 |
| Dustin Ackley | 0.241 | 0.296 | -0.055 |
| Justin Maxwell | 0.269 | 0.324 | -0.055 |
| Logan Morrison | 0.238 | 0.291 | -0.053 |
| Carlos Ruiz | 0.242 | 0.294 | -0.052 |
| Carlos Sanchez | 0.270 | 0.322 | -0.052 |
| Ichiro Suzuki | 0.257 | 0.308 | -0.051 |
| Matt Joyce | 0.215 | 0.266 | -0.051 |
| Aaron Hill | 0.253 | 0.303 | -0.050 |
| Ryan Zimmerman | 0.268 | 0.318 | -0.050 |
| Jonathan Lucroy | 0.297 | 0.347 | -0.050 |
| Steve Pearce | 0.232 | 0.281 | -0.049 |
| David Ortiz | 0.264 | 0.313 | -0.049 |
| Tyler Saladino | 0.269 | 0.317 | -0.048 |
| Wilson Ramos | 0.256 | 0.303 | -0.047 |
| Billy Hamilton | 0.264 | 0.310 | -0.046 |
| David DeJesus | 0.266 | 0.310 | -0.044 |
| Gordon Beckham | 0.229 | 0.273 | -0.044 |
| Chris Coghlan | 0.284 | 0.328 | -0.044 |
| Stephen Drew | 0.201 | 0.245 | -0.044 |
| A.J. Ellis | 0.265 | 0.308 | -0.043 |
| Danny Santana | 0.290 | 0.333 | -0.043 |
| Alex Avila | 0.278 | 0.320 | -0.042 |
| Paulo Orlando | 0.291 | 0.333 | -0.042 |
| Pedro Alvarez | 0.279 | 0.320 | -0.041 |
| Alex Guerrero | 0.261 | 0.302 | -0.041 |
| Chris Carter | 0.244 | 0.283 | -0.039 |
| Carlos Correa | 0.296 | 0.335 | -0.039 |
| Mark Teixeira | 0.246 | 0.285 | -0.039 |
| Victor Martinez | 0.253 | 0.292 | -0.039 |
| Omar Infante | 0.255 | 0.293 | -0.038 |
| Daniel Descalso | 0.244 | 0.282 | -0.038 |
| Jimmy Rollins | 0.246 | 0.284 | -0.038 |
| J.T. Realmuto | 0.285 | 0.322 | -0.037 |
| Caleb Joseph | 0.269 | 0.306 | -0.037 |
| Welington Castillo | 0.263 | 0.299 | -0.036 |
| Brian McCann | 0.235 | 0.271 | -0.036 |
| Jarrod Dyson | 0.296 | 0.331 | -0.035 |
| Rene Rivera | 0.230 | 0.265 | -0.035 |
| Ryan Flaherty | 0.251 | 0.286 | -0.035 |
| Skip Schumaker | 0.301 | 0.336 | -0.035 |
| Darin Ruf | 0.268 | 0.302 | -0.034 |
| Aramis Ramirez | 0.253 | 0.287 | -0.034 |
| Joe Mauer | 0.309 | 0.342 | -0.033 |
| Aaron Hicks | 0.285 | 0.318 | -0.033 |
| Tyler Moore | 0.234 | 0.267 | -0.033 |
| Jose Bautista | 0.237 | 0.269 | -0.032 |
| Chris Owings | 0.305 | 0.337 | -0.032 |
| Ike Davis | 0.272 | 0.304 | -0.032 |
| Giovanny Urshela | 0.266 | 0.297 | -0.031 |
| Tim Beckham | 0.279 | 0.310 | -0.031 |
| Jason Bourgeois | 0.275 | 0.306 | -0.031 |
| Torii Hunter | 0.258 | 0.288 | -0.030 |
| Adrian Gonzalez | 0.294 | 0.324 | -0.030 |
| Alcides Escobar | 0.286 | 0.316 | -0.030 |
| Daniel Murphy | 0.278 | 0.308 | -0.030 |
| Mike Aviles | 0.250 | 0.280 | -0.030 |
| Elvis Andrus | 0.283 | 0.313 | -0.030 |
| Kyle Seager | 0.278 | 0.307 | -0.029 |
| Elian Herrera | 0.307 | 0.336 | -0.029 |
| Matt Kemp | 0.311 | 0.339 | -0.028 |
| Evan Gattis | 0.264 | 0.292 | -0.028 |
| Giancarlo Stanton | 0.294 | 0.322 | -0.028 |
| Alexei Ramirez | 0.264 | 0.292 | -0.028 |
| Jason Castro | 0.280 | 0.307 | -0.027 |
| Chris Iannetta | 0.225 | 0.252 | -0.027 |
| Russell Martin | 0.262 | 0.289 | -0.027 |
| Domonic Brown | 0.257 | 0.283 | -0.026 |
| Shane Victorino | 0.272 | 0.297 | -0.025 |
| Josh Reddick | 0.278 | 0.303 | -0.025 |
| Zack Cozart | 0.258 | 0.282 | -0.024 |
| Seth Smith | 0.298 | 0.322 | -0.024 |
| Andrelton Simmons | 0.285 | 0.309 | -0.024 |
| Nick Ahmed | 0.257 | 0.281 | -0.024 |
| Michael Morse | 0.324 | 0.347 | -0.023 |
| Ryan Braun | 0.322 | 0.345 | -0.023 |
| Peter Bourjos | 0.263 | 0.286 | -0.023 |
| Curtis Granderson | 0.305 | 0.328 | -0.023 |
| Jace Peterson | 0.296 | 0.317 | -0.021 |
| Jean Segura | 0.298 | 0.319 | -0.021 |
| Adrian Beltre | 0.295 | 0.316 | -0.021 |
| Melky Cabrera | 0.297 | 0.318 | -0.021 |
| Marlon Byrd | 0.297 | 0.318 | -0.021 |
| Pablo Sandoval | 0.270 | 0.290 | -0.020 |
| Geovany Soto | 0.278 | 0.298 | -0.020 |
| Billy Butler | 0.282 | 0.302 | -0.020 |
| Brandon Crawford | 0.294 | 0.314 | -0.020 |
| Denard Span | 0.318 | 0.338 | -0.020 |
| Matt Carpenter | 0.321 | 0.341 | -0.020 |
| Brad Miller | 0.307 | 0.326 | -0.019 |
| Trevor Plouffe | 0.274 | 0.293 | -0.019 |
| Rajai Davis | 0.308 | 0.327 | -0.019 |
| Brian Dozier | 0.261 | 0.280 | -0.019 |
| Alex Rodriguez | 0.278 | 0.297 | -0.019 |
| Lucas Duda | 0.285 | 0.304 | -0.019 |
| Joc Pederson | 0.262 | 0.281 | -0.019 |
| Freddie Freeman | 0.321 | 0.339 | -0.018 |
| Ivan De Jesus | 0.315 | 0.333 | -0.018 |
| Alberto Callaspo | 0.269 | 0.287 | -0.018 |
| Miguel Montero | 0.306 | 0.324 | -0.018 |
| Nolan Arenado | 0.284 | 0.302 | -0.018 |
| Conor Gillaspie | 0.266 | 0.284 | -0.018 |
| Carlos Santana | 0.261 | 0.278 | -0.017 |
| Adam LaRoche | 0.269 | 0.286 | -0.017 |
| Martin Maldonado | 0.272 | 0.289 | -0.017 |
| J.J. Hardy | 0.257 | 0.274 | -0.017 |
| Wilmer Flores | 0.273 | 0.289 | -0.016 |
| Kyle Schwarber | 0.293 | 0.309 | -0.016 |
| Anthony Rizzo | 0.289 | 0.305 | -0.016 |
| Hernan Perez | 0.309 | 0.325 | -0.016 |
| Abraham Almonte | 0.299 | 0.315 | -0.016 |
| Ryan Hanigan | 0.306 | 0.321 | -0.015 |
| Carlos Gonzalez | 0.284 | 0.299 | -0.015 |
| Clint Robinson | 0.298 | 0.313 | -0.015 |
| Yan Gomes | 0.285 | 0.300 | -0.015 |
| Mike Zunino | 0.239 | 0.254 | -0.015 |
| Jacoby Ellsbury | 0.301 | 0.315 | -0.014 |
| Brandon Moss | 0.285 | 0.299 | -0.014 |
| Alex Rios | 0.294 | 0.308 | -0.014 |
| Khris Davis | 0.285 | 0.299 | -0.014 |
| Howie Kendrick | 0.342 | 0.356 | -0.014 |
| Brandon Phillips | 0.315 | 0.329 | -0.014 |
| Nori Aoki | 0.298 | 0.311 | -0.013 |
| Michael Taylor | 0.311 | 0.324 | -0.013 |
| Yangervis Solarte | 0.279 | 0.292 | -0.013 |
| Charlie Blackmon | 0.325 | 0.338 | -0.013 |
| Kolten Wong | 0.296 | 0.309 | -0.013 |
| Todd Frazier | 0.271 | 0.283 | -0.012 |
| Robinson Cano | 0.316 | 0.328 | -0.012 |
| Rusney Castillo | 0.298 | 0.310 | -0.012 |
| Kevin Kiermaier | 0.306 | 0.318 | -0.012 |
| Leonys Martin | 0.270 | 0.282 | -0.012 |
| Hunter Pence | 0.320 | 0.331 | -0.011 |
| Roberto Perez | 0.304 | 0.315 | -0.011 |
| Jedd Gyorko | 0.290 | 0.301 | -0.011 |
| Eric Sogard | 0.283 | 0.294 | -0.011 |
| Kevin Plawecki | 0.277 | 0.288 | -0.011 |
| Jordy Mercer | 0.290 | 0.301 | -0.011 |
| Preston Tucker | 0.274 | 0.284 | -0.010 |
| Edwin Encarnacion | 0.267 | 0.277 | -0.010 |
| Kurt Suzuki | 0.265 | 0.275 | -0.010 |
| Erick Aybar | 0.300 | 0.310 | -0.010 |
| Will Venable | 0.317 | 0.327 | -0.010 |
| Tucker Barnhart | 0.294 | 0.304 | -0.010 |
| Brett Gardner | 0.312 | 0.322 | -0.010 |
| Angel Pagan | 0.310 | 0.319 | -0.009 |
| Neil Walker | 0.306 | 0.315 | -0.009 |
| Gerardo Parra | 0.325 | 0.334 | -0.009 |
| Gregory Polanco | 0.308 | 0.317 | -0.009 |
| Dexter Fowler | 0.308 | 0.317 | -0.009 |
| David Freese | 0.310 | 0.319 | -0.009 |
| Cameron Rupp | 0.281 | 0.290 | -0.009 |
| Ruben Tejada | 0.315 | 0.324 | -0.009 |
| Jhonny Peralta | 0.311 | 0.319 | -0.008 |
| Ben Zobrist | 0.288 | 0.296 | -0.008 |
| Justin Turner | 0.321 | 0.329 | -0.008 |
| Yadier Molina | 0.295 | 0.303 | -0.008 |
| Mike Trout | 0.344 | 0.352 | -0.008 |
| Stephen Vogt | 0.290 | 0.298 | -0.008 |
| Cameron Maybin | 0.316 | 0.324 | -0.008 |
| Mike Napoli | 0.268 | 0.275 | -0.007 |
| Michael Bourn | 0.315 | 0.322 | -0.007 |
| DJ LeMahieu | 0.362 | 0.369 | -0.007 |
| Grady Sizemore | 0.303 | 0.309 | -0.006 |
| Adam Jones | 0.286 | 0.292 | -0.006 |
| Travis Snider | 0.305 | 0.311 | -0.006 |
| Cory Spangenberg | 0.344 | 0.350 | -0.006 |
| Ender Inciarte | 0.329 | 0.335 | -0.006 |
| Avisail Garcia | 0.320 | 0.326 | -0.006 |
| Yasmani Grandal | 0.268 | 0.274 | -0.006 |
| Matt Duffy | 0.336 | 0.342 | -0.006 |
| Justin Upton | 0.304 | 0.309 | -0.005 |
| Eric Hosmer | 0.336 | 0.341 | -0.005 |
| Clint Barmes | 0.302 | 0.307 | -0.005 |
| Michael Brantley | 0.318 | 0.322 | -0.004 |
| Jarrod Saltalamacchia | 0.293 | 0.297 | -0.004 |
| Yasiel Puig | 0.296 | 0.300 | -0.004 |
| Ryan Goins | 0.304 | 0.308 | -0.004 |
| Kole Calhoun | 0.304 | 0.308 | -0.004 |
| Michael Cuddyer | 0.312 | 0.315 | -0.003 |
| Mark Canha | 0.289 | 0.292 | -0.003 |
| Kelly Johnson | 0.315 | 0.318 | -0.003 |
| George Springer | 0.342 | 0.345 | -0.003 |
| Jackie Bradley Jr. | 0.310 | 0.313 | -0.003 |
| Yonder Alonso | 0.313 | 0.316 | -0.003 |
| Marcus Semien | 0.312 | 0.314 | -0.002 |
| Salvador Perez | 0.270 | 0.272 | -0.002 |
| Cesar Hernandez | 0.342 | 0.344 | -0.002 |
| Austin Jackson | 0.342 | 0.344 | -0.002 |
| Lorenzo Cain | 0.347 | 0.349 | -0.002 |
| Juan Uribe | 0.288 | 0.290 | -0.002 |
| Nick Castellanos | 0.322 | 0.324 | -0.002 |
| Freddy Galvis | 0.309 | 0.310 | -0.001 |
| Manny Machado | 0.297 | 0.298 | -0.001 |
| Robinson Chirinos | 0.270 | 0.270 | 0.000 |
| Buster Posey | 0.320 | 0.320 | 0.000 |
| Juan Lagares | 0.308 | 0.308 | 0.000 |
| Didi Gregorius | 0.297 | 0.297 | 0.000 |
| Brandon Barnes | 0.332 | 0.332 | 0.000 |
| Shane Peterson | 0.345 | 0.345 | 0.000 |
| Brandon Guyer | 0.303 | 0.303 | 0.000 |
| Adam Lind | 0.309 | 0.309 | 0.000 |
| Chris Davis | 0.319 | 0.319 | 0.000 |
| Hank Conger | 0.271 | 0.271 | 0.000 |
| Marcell Ozuna | 0.320 | 0.320 | 0.000 |
Mike Podhorzer is the founder of ProjectingX IQ, an advanced fantasy baseball analytics platform that transforms projection data and in-season performance signals into actionable intelligence. He is the 2015 Fantasy Sports Writers Association Baseball Writer of the Year and three-time Tout Wars champion. He is the author of the eBook Projecting X 2.0: How to Forecast Baseball Player Performance, which teaches you how to project players yourself. Follow Mike on X@MikePodhorzer and contact him via email.
Lowrie though won’t qualify at 2nd or SS in many leagues due to not playing enough games there in 2015 and isn’t as appealing as a 3B
he’s probably starting at 2B for the A’s, so he’ll earn it a week or two into the season
It seems inferred that we should generally expect regression to the mean – that is, over time, actual BABIP = xBABIP. Has it ever been tested to see whether that “correction” regularly happens in the following year?
What percentage of players have under-achieved or over-achieved their xBABIP in consecutive years? And for those that see a “correction” in the second year, is their deviation from xBABIP in the 1st year within 1.5 SD of the mean?
Without analysis to show multiyear correlations, we are still blindly guessing about the second year.
Of the top 5 players listed, Hanley is the only one with a FB% not over 42%. His was 29.6%
I dont like how HRs are not counted in BABIP. If you’re crushing 40 HRs in a year, they are still hits. Some of these sluggers BAPIPs wouldnt look so bad is HRs were included.
If it helps, try to look at BABIP as a number that just tries to isolate luck, and that there is no “good” BABIP. .270 and .340 can be equally valuable, if the .270 BABIP hitter is also hitting fly balls that turn into HR.
It’s a terrible thing for Billy Hamilton to have a .270 BABIP, but it’s great for Pujols. If Pujols got his BABIP up to .300 by hitting ground balls, he’d give up a lot more in HR.
Batting average on “BALLS IN PLAY”…
strikeouts don’t count against it either…
There’s no luck involved with a HR, BB or K.
Try understanding what the stat is trying to say.
In my opinion there is luck when hitting a home run…..the park where the fly ball is hit is the luck factor…for example if a 405 foot fly ball is hit into the right field power ally in San Francisco it could be caught for an out….in every other ML park that same fly ball is a home run hit into the seats….in some parks well into the seats…..for the other extreme you’ve got the short porches at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium that produce the homers where in most other parks those same fly balls would be outs.
Consequently, if luck is a factor of BABIP, then some home runs are lucky due to the dimensions of the parks where they are hit….just like a bloop is lucky because of where it was hit in relation to the skill of the individual defender or/and where the defense was positioned or a double off the fence is lucky because of the out field wall dimensions….both the bloop and the double are counted in the BABIP calculation but the home run is excluded. I suppose it comes down to how luck is defined….IMO some home runs involve luck just as other types of hits do.
The paragraph about Jayson Werth doesn’t have his name in it.
Wow hat was a silly mistake. Fixed, thanks.
the comment here missed the w in what.
I hate to go down this rabbit hole, but I think it missed the ‘t’ in ‘that’.
2015 Nats RIP 🙁
As for Ramos, he is crazy slow and puts the ball on the ground waaaaay too much, so even though his hard-hit rate is (I assume) reasonably high, it doesn’t really do him any good. Guy hit into roughly eight-thousand double plays last year.
Yes but it’s cool that he set a single-season record for plate appearances!
I can’t wait to see what happens here when we get to xBABIP overachievers, and FanGraphs explodes. Cubs fans in the comment section (and whoever runs the Steamer projections) won’t like what they see with Kris Bryant.
Says a fan of the team that just overpaid for Cespedes…