3/15/2020

Cody Bellinger and the MVP xwOBA

Bellinger game-used memorabilia card, 2020 Topps series 1

Life without baseball is boring, extremely boring. Spring is supposed to be a good season to celebrate that baseball is back. However, the Coronavirus outbreak really makes things out of control. MLB made the right decision to cancel the remainder of spring training and postpone the opening day. So far, no baseball games, we don’t know when baseball will be back. We can only wait.


Well, there are lots of things to do while waiting, so I looked at Cody Bellinger’s xwOBA.

Bellinger ranked the second, only behind Mike Trout, in xwOBA. That really tells you that the NL MVP award is deserved.

Name
xwOBA (Min PA:250), 2019
Mike Trout
0.455
Cody Bellinger
0.429
Christian Yelich
0.420
Howie Kendrick
0.419
Anthony Rendon
0.418

Against Fastballs, Bellinger’s xwOBA is .448, 9th in the league. The number is higher than his season xwOBA, hitting fastballs is definitely not a problem for Cody, but there are more elite hitters who can destroy fastballs.

Name
xwOBA (Min PA:250, Fastballs), 2019
Jorge Soler
0.473
Mike Trout
0.472
Juan Soto
0.464
Nelson Cruz
0.455
Anthony Rendon
0.454
Bryce Harper
0.450
Christian Yelich
0.449
Nicholas Castellanos
0.449
Cody Bellinger
0.448
Mookie Betts
0.447

Offspeed doesn't cause Bellinger too much trouble, he’s the 3rd on the chart.   Meanwhile, it is interesting to see Offspeed xwOBA, 3 left-handed hitters and 2 switch hitters on the top. Left-handed hitters may have an edge over Offspeed? Well, Carlos Santana’s Offspeed xwOBA against righties is .376 and Moncada’s number is .380.

Name
xwOBA (Min PA:100, Offspeed), 2019
Rafael Devers
0.412
Carlos Santana
0.380
Cody Bellinger
0.378
Yoan Moncada
0.368
Juan Soto
0.368

Breakingballs were really fooling Bellinger in 2018, his xwOBA was only .283 in his sophomore year. Last season, he definitely made a huge progress and this really makes pitchers hard to pitch against him.  

Name
xwOBA (Min PA:100, Breaking), 2019
Josh Bell
0.418
Mike Trout
0.416
Ronald Acuna Jr.
0.411
Cody Bellinger
0.408
George Springer
0.406

Cody Bellinger became the MVP in his third season in the big league and he showed so much improvement from the sophomore year. xwOBA tells that he transformed into an elite hitter. Seeing Bellinger and Betts in the same lineup should be just awesome, but let’s wait a bit.

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