ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Aug 5, 2021 11:51:05 GMT -5
Since he was returned to leadoff on June 27th (after hitting quite well after his temporary demotion), Kiké Hernandez has been:
- The MLB leader in fWAR, with 2.2.
- Second in MLB in xwOBA (minimum 120 PA; Kiké has 141) with .440. His woBA? .441. (This is typical for him, in the long run; he's neither easy nor hard to defend against.)
You should immediately want to know who the other xwOBA leaders are. Are they generally considered to be really good?
.447 Joey Votto .440 our man .439 Shohei Ohtani
.437 Bryce Harper .431 Vlad Guerrero, Jr.
.426 Freddie Freeman .417 Juan Soto .411 Rafael Devers
OK, that worked.
Sneak preview of the next installment:
I have found his best stretch previous to this one. June 10 to July 10, 2018, the first great stretch since the league apparently completed the book on him his sophomore season (and following 714 subpar PA).
This streak is 55% longer (so far). Kiké is fanning 31% less and walking 22% more (adjusted for league rates). His swings and misses in the zone (as a % of all pitches) are down 44% and his pitches taken in the zone are down 22%. He's going to the opposite field 14% more.
Remember, this is compared to his second best stretch. In that stretch he had very good strike zone command, an 80 SO- (20% less often than league average) and a 121 UBB+ . This time he's 55 and and 148.
And whereas he struggled against cutters and sinkers in 2018, in this stretch he has positive results versus every pitch type.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Aug 15, 2021 8:48:14 GMT -5
Kiké has had another 45 PA and put up a .390 xwOBA. So now he's .428 since June 27, in 186 PA.
Leaders. minimum 160 PA:
.464 Joey Votto .444 Bryce Harper .443 Shohei Ohtani .429 Juan Soto .428 Kiké Hernandez .411 J.D. Martinez .406 Vlad Guerreo, Jr. .404 Paul Goldschmidt .403 Bryan Reynolds .397 Freddie Freeman .395 Pete Alonso .394 Austin Riley .392 Matt Olson .386 Jeimer Candelario
Candelario is the first guy after Kiké who's a major surprise (Riley's a #41 overall pick and appears to be breaking out at age 24; he's .366 on the season). He's .390 starting July 2, after .332 beginning last year. But that was .354 last year and .316 this year before the current streak, so he did have some evident upside. And there's a solid difference between .390 in 159 PA and .428 in 186 (.652 in 27 PA, to be exact).
Edit: he's now 3rd in fWAR to Votto and Soto in this stretch. He's 5th in their oWAR, and the only other guy in the top 30 with more walks than strikeouts is Freeman, who's 14th.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Aug 28, 2021 3:56:12 GMT -5
When Kiké went on the COVID list, he was up to 2nd in fWAR staring June 27, a fraction behind Soto -- both were at 3.0.
Since the last update he had another 46 PA and passed Ohtani to be 4th in xwOBA, minimum 200 PA:
.446 Harper .441 Soto .440 Votto .416 Kiké .415 Ohtani .412 Goldschmidt .405 Freeman .388 Riley .387 Devers .387 Alonso .387 Guerrero .382 Reynolds .381 JDM
His wOBA, .412, ranks 6th.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Aug 28, 2021 4:51:01 GMT -5
When Kiké went on the COVID list, he was up to 2nd in fWAR staring June 27, a fraction behind Soto -- both were at 3.0. Since the last update he had another 46 PA and passed Ohtani to be 4th in xwOBA, minimum 200 PA: .446 Harper .441 Soto .440 Votto .416 Kiké .415 Ohtani .412 Goldschmidt .405 Freeman .388 Riley .387 Devers .387 Alonso .387 Guerrero .382 Reynolds .381 JDM His wOBA, .412, ranks 6th.
Who are those other guys ? |
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cdj
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Post by cdj on Aug 28, 2021 8:13:05 GMT -5
This has potential to be an all time great free agent signing. Those numbers don’t even get into his intangibles or versatility, the acquisition was a stroke of genius
At the absolute worst you had a versatile bench player with pop who mashes lefties and is a good clubhouse presence. Turned out he’s been one of the better players in baseball this year.
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