Welcome to Ronnie’s Run Down! This column looks at some fascinating matchups and facts that might pique the interest of the reader as that day’s games are reviewed. This is just my attempt at creating come compelling thought on any given day. There are nine innings in baseball, and nine points in my daily run down.
- I could write about Matt Carpenter every week. The bottom line is the guy is having arguably the best year of his career. He’s the current NL leader in HR with 34, and he’s posting career highs in OPS+ (156), SLG (575), and ISO (.306), all helping him keep pace for a possible NL MVP award. He’s really hitting the ball hard over the last week; he’s making 71.4% HC and 0.0% SC in 22 PA. Unfortunately a .231 BABIP suggest that luck is keeping his numbers down. If he keeps making contact like he has in the last 6 game, the big hits will come.
- While we’re on the subject of the St Louis Cardinals, Marcell Ozuna is riding a hot hand in his last 21 PA. In that span he’s making 61.5% HC with 0.0% SC with a 222 wRC+. His wOBA is up to .501 and he sports a robust .333 ISO. He’s not just getting luck with big swings, he’s taking walks at a 14.3% clip to show off nice patience.
- Jackie Bradley Jr has struggled mightily to find value on offense. He’s yet to duplicate his breakout season in 2016 and this year has been particularly poor as he sports just a 86 wRC+. He has been on a bit of a hot streak lately batting .320/.320/.440 in his last 7 games. Obviously from that slash you can see that he has not drawn a walk in any of his 25 PA in that time, but his 64.7% HC has been enough to get him the hits.
- Luis Castillo of the Reds has really turned it on lately. In his last 4 starts he has a 10.22 K/9 and a 7.00 K/BB. His .304 SIERA in 24.2 PA leads the Reds and his junk pitches (changeup, slider, sinker) are worth a combined 5.2 weighted runs. That’s a good sign for him as the throws those offspeed pitches 71.3% of the time.
- The Angels rookie infielder David Fletcher has an astonishing 56.3% LD in his last 20 PA. Like Bradley, Fletcher has yet to draw a walk, but his LD has helped him hit .474/.474/.684 in that span with 2.9 wRAA in 5 games. Fletcher has been pretty close to league average at the plate in terms of overall value, but his defense has been steller. He’s worth 7.4 dRAA through his first 58 Major League games playing both shortstop and second base.
- Paul Goldschmidt is by far the hottest hitter in the NL right now. Over the last 7 days he has a .769 wOBA and a 27.3% walk rate. He’s accomplishing this with a very nice 53.9% HC and a 38.5% LD. Tonight Goldschmidt faces lefty Wade LeBlanc of the Seattle Mariners. On the season Goldschmidt has a 189 sOPS+ against lefties.
- Jake Cave of the Minnesota Twins is just nuts right now. He has a 66.7% HR/RB and a 163 wRC+ in his last 23 PA. He’s crushing the ball up the middle with 55.6% of his BIP that way. He faces the Athletics Mike Fiers today at home in Minnesota. Cave has a huge home/road split with a slash of .192/.229/.269 on the road and .345/.385/.643 at home.
- The Mets Jeff McNeil has some very interesting numbers over the last week. In his last 7 games he has amassed 14 hits with 10 of them being singles. McNeil has a 260 wRC+ and a .555 wOBA in 26 PA while making 45.5% HC. He’s got a very strong 40.9% LD to go with it and an impressive for him .231 ISO.
- Yefry Ramirez of the Orioles has a 6.74 SIERA in his last 4 starts. He’s managed only 14.2 innings in those starts and although he has an eh strikeout rate of 7.36/9, he has a laughable 9.20 BB/9. That’s not a type-o, that is nine point two walks per nine innings my friends. For those of you mathematically challenged, that’s 15 walks. He’s actually managed to throw almost as many balls (151) in that time as strikes (188).
