March 3, 20215 yr I ran across this stat page the other day on the Statcast Exit Velocity and Barrels Leaderboard. Exit Velocity (MPH) Distance (ft) Hard Hit Barrels Rk. Player Team BBE LA (°) SwSp% Max Avg FB/LD GB Max Avg Avg HR 95 MPH+ % % Swing # Brls/BBE % Brls/PA % Those are the headings, and you can sort by them. BBE - Batted ball events LA - Launch angle SwSp% - Sweet spot % Exit velocity pretty clear, as is distance, hard hit and Barrels. Here's where Eloy Jimenez ranked last year. Working backwards from the right 4th in barrels/PA%. behind only Tatis, Seager, and Soto. 7th in barrels/BBE% 11th in hard hit swing % 5th in hard hit % 7th in 95 mph+ 110th in avg HR distance 115th in avg distance 5th (tied) in max distance 17th in GB exit velocity 8th in FB/LD (fly ball/line drive) exit velocity 17th in avg exit velocity 25th in max exit velocity 84th in Sweet Spot% 130th in Launch Angle 56th in BBEs What do these stats tell us about Eloy? For one, he was the highest Sox player on what seem to be the most important stats, ahead of Abreu. On the barrels/PA%, he's 4th in baseball, behind three very highly rated guys. He's also top 11 in barrels/BBE%, hard hit swing %, hard hit %, 95 mph+, max distance, and FB/LD exit velocity. Based on this, my conclusion is he'll be the White Sox best hitter perhaps as early as this year. Measured by other stats, like OPS and OPS+, Abreu was ahead of him in 2020. But we should be expecting Jimenez to keep trending up, while Abreu is unlikely to repeat his 2020 numbers again. Luis Robert might be able to overtake him at some point, but he's not there yet. Of course, these are not the prime stats most hitters are judged by. But if you hit the ball on the barrel a high percentage of the time, good things tend to happen. I just thought this was interesting data and wanted to put it out for discussion.
March 3, 20215 yr Just now, iWiN4PreP said: he'll probably get injured because the white sox trot him out in the outfield They have to.
March 3, 20215 yr Batted ball quality is definitely already off the charts and the scary thing is that there is more in the tank with a little higher launch angle and pull rate. If he is a 40 Homer guy like this a bit of optimization could make him a 50 plus bomb guy. On the flip side his plate discipline of course still is below average in both walks and strikeout department. Would be good if he improved that but even if not his batted ball quality is good enough to compensate.
March 4, 20215 yr 40 minutes ago, iWiN4PreP said: he'll probably get injured because the white sox trot him out in the outfield Glad you don't make decisions for the team
March 4, 20215 yr 32 minutes ago, ron883 said: Glad you don't make decisions for the team I don't see it as a huge deal but not exactly sure what your issue with that comment is.
March 4, 20215 yr 7 minutes ago, RagahRagah said: I don't see it as a huge deal but not exactly sure what your issue with that comment is. Who are the Sox getting rid of so Eloy can DH? Abreu or Vaughn?
March 4, 20215 yr Eloy simply has to make two more years in the Of. Abreu is a free agent after 2022 and while he has been good he will be like 37 or so in 2023 and I think at that point Vaughn takes over first and Eloy goes to the Of. Defensively that is not ideal and it is some injury risk but having those 3 in the lineup produces so many runs that you can live with some runs lost in the field.
March 4, 20215 yr 1 hour ago, ron883 said: Who are the Sox getting rid of so Eloy can DH? Abreu or Vaughn? Surprised you aren't the one saying Abreu can pack his bags if that's the case....
March 4, 20215 yr 2 hours ago, Dominikk85 said: Batted ball quality is definitely already off the charts and the scary thing is that there is more in the tank with a little higher launch angle and pull rate. If he is a 40 Homer guy like this a bit of optimization could make him a 50 plus bomb guy. On the flip side his plate discipline of course still is below average in both walks and strikeout department. Would be good if he improved that but even if not his batted ball quality is good enough to compensate. I think he will put up a 300 iso season the question is can he do a .380 OBP in his prime to go with it. Defense? Who would even care at that point.
March 4, 20215 yr I think he'll be a top 5 AL MVP at the least. Another Sox player may take some of his votes. Defensively, I'll hold judgement until I see more. It sounds like he was extremely driven to improve and keep his LF status vs DH. His catch by the corner to end the Angel game was smoothly routine; last year not so much.
March 4, 20215 yr BTW his low launch angle and pull rate might actually be a good thing for him. Generally pulling more and higher launch angle increases performance but they are also negatively correlated with Babip, I. E high pull rate and high launch angle guys often have low BABIPs (prime example of this is Jose Bautista who was the ultimate fly ball pull guy). So if Eloy can hit 40 bombs like this he might actually be better off to hit like this and gain the higher babip because he doesn't need any more power and if he loses some physical steam later in his career he still has it in his back pocket to pull the ball more to keep up his power.
March 4, 20215 yr 11 hours ago, ron883 said: Who are the Sox getting rid of so Eloy can DH? Abreu or Vaughn? If they had gone this route there were numerous great DH candidates, as you are surely aware.
March 4, 20215 yr 3 hours ago, RagahRagah said: If they had gone this route there were numerous great DH candidates, as you are surely aware. You didn't answer the question. Do I need to teach you how to correctly argue?
March 4, 20215 yr 12 minutes ago, ron883 said: You didn't answer the question. Do I need to teach you how to correctly argue? It's not really an issue, you figure that out when it's time. Maybe one gets injured or underperforms. Maybe Jose declines finally. Usually that stuff figures itself out, having too many good guys rarely is an issue.
March 4, 20215 yr 21 hours ago, VAfan said: I ran across this stat page the other day on the Statcast Exit Velocity and Barrels Leaderboard. Exit Velocity (MPH) Distance (ft) Hard Hit Barrels Rk. Player Team BBE LA (°) SwSp% Max Avg FB/LD GB Max Avg Avg HR 95 MPH+ % % Swing # Brls/BBE % Brls/PA % Those are the headings, and you can sort by them. BBE - Batted ball events LA - Launch angle SwSp% - Sweet spot % Exit velocity pretty clear, as is distance, hard hit and Barrels. Here's where Eloy Jimenez ranked last year. Working backwards from the right 4th in barrels/PA%. behind only Tatis, Seager, and Soto. 7th in barrels/BBE% 11th in hard hit swing % 5th in hard hit % 7th in 95 mph+ 110th in avg HR distance 115th in avg distance 5th (tied) in max distance 17th in GB exit velocity 8th in FB/LD (fly ball/line drive) exit velocity 17th in avg exit velocity 25th in max exit velocity 84th in Sweet Spot% 130th in Launch Angle 56th in BBEs What do these stats tell us about Eloy? For one, he was the highest Sox player on what seem to be the most important stats, ahead of Abreu. On the barrels/PA%, he's 4th in baseball, behind three very highly rated guys. He's also top 11 in barrels/BBE%, hard hit swing %, hard hit %, 95 mph+, max distance, and FB/LD exit velocity. Based on this, my conclusion is he'll be the White Sox best hitter perhaps as early as this year. Measured by other stats, like OPS and OPS+, Abreu was ahead of him in 2020. But we should be expecting Jimenez to keep trending up, while Abreu is unlikely to repeat his 2020 numbers again. Luis Robert might be able to overtake him at some point, but he's not there yet. Of course, these are not the prime stats most hitters are judged by. But if you hit the ball on the barrel a high percentage of the time, good things tend to happen. I just thought this was interesting data and wanted to put it out for discussion. It's interesting how many true bashers the Sox have in their lineup. That's why I want Vaughn up as soon as possible. Another basher. In terms of pure hitting talent this puts the 1977 Sox to shame even. All these great bashers take the heat off players individually. Who needs to feel pressure when there's Eloy, Robert, Vaughn, Moncada, Anderson, Abreu and Grandal. Even Collins is a prospect with power. My point is Eloy is amazing hitter who should be so carefree with so many strong bats around him. I would guess the only negative is we'll probably have a team hit into a lot of double plays, hopefully not too many in this era of lift and pull. GO ELOY! Edited March 4, 20215 yr by greg775
March 5, 20215 yr The launch angle, coupled with average home run distance and average distance, definitely speaks volumes on untapped power potential. We've seen how streaky he can be with the long ball with the number of multi-HR games he has, likely due to a slight swing adjustment on particular nights that may be unidentifiable to him but is impacting his launch angle at times. Don't get me wrong. He's a hell of a hitter and I wouldn't change much. But I've got to think that the analytics people in the Sox org are seeing the same thing we're seeing in this thread which could lead to a very slight tweak to his swing resulting in an absolute MONSTER of a longball threat.
March 5, 20215 yr Eloy is an all-star calibre hitter. I agree with others he COULD be even better hitting the ball in the air more often - the caveat being there is no guarantee he couldn’t also become worse in doing so.
March 5, 20215 yr On 3/4/2021 at 9:28 AM, ron883 said: You didn't answer the question. Do I need to teach you how to correctly argue? Because Vaughn doesn't necessarily need to even be in the MLB this year and might not be ready this year, which has been talked about ad nauseum.
March 5, 20215 yr 7 minutes ago, RagahRagah said: Because Vaughn doesn't necessarily need to even be in the MLB this year and might not be ready this year, which has been talked about ad nauseum. I haven't read anything from the organization, scouts or insiders indicating that Vaughn ISN'T ready for the majors. It's pretty obvious he is ready and will be up early in the season.
March 5, 20215 yr 5 minutes ago, ron883 said: I haven't read anything from the organization, scouts or insiders indicating that Vaughn ISN'T ready for the majors. It's pretty obvious he is ready and will be up early in the season. IIRC Vaughn hasn't seen Triple A ball yet. Nothing says they would have had to play him this year. He could always shift duties and Vaughn could give Abreu some rest at 1st. Point is moot now, but acting like this is out of the realm of possibility is incorrect.
March 5, 20215 yr MLB.com thinks he could be the 2021 HR king: https://www.mlb.com/news/2021-mlb-home-run-leader-predictions
March 5, 20215 yr 1 hour ago, SpringfieldFan said: MLB.com thinks he could be the 2021 HR king: https://www.mlb.com/news/2021-mlb-home-run-leader-predictions Isn't that the kiss of death? Lol.
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