J.D. Martinez signed a 5-year deal with the Red Sox in February 2018. In his first season with the Red Sox, J.D. Martinez didn’t let the Red Sox down. He slashed .330/.402/.629 with 43 home runs and 130 RBI. 130 RBI made Martinez the RBI leader in the majors in the 2018 season. In the playoffs, he stayed hot. Martinez was hitting .300/.403/.520 with 3 home runs and 14 RBI in 14 games. It wasn’t a surprise to see Martinez hit well in the 2018 postseason, his xwOBA was .512 and he did make very solid contact in the postseason. Last season, Carlos Correa was hitting .264/.326/.383 with 5 home runs and 25 RBI. Those numbers didn’t look particularly good, however, Carlos Correa was dangerous in the postseason. He slashed .362/.455/.766 with 6 home runs and 17 RBI in 13 games. In particular, Correa was hot in the ALDS and he crushed 3 homers and collected 11 RBI in 4 games against the Oakland A’s. Corey Seager was the NLCS MVP and the World Series MVP last year. Seager was outstanding in the 2020 postseason. He batted .328/.425/.746 with 8 home runs and 20 RBI over 18 games. Seager blasted 5 home runs and collected 11 RBI in the NLCS and in the World Series, Seager was hitting .400/.556/.700 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI. When we look at Seager’s .501 xwOBA in the 2020 postseason, it just showed us that his great performance wasn’t a surprise last year. He is capable of making solid contact and he surely did. When we look back at the 2020 season, we shouldn’t ignore Freddie Freeman, who won the 2020 NL MVP. During the regular season, Freeman slashed .341/.462/.640 with 13 home runs and 53 RBI. Freeman’s batting average was just .167 in the NL Wild Card Series and NL Division Series each. However, he heated up in the NLCS and he hit .360/.448/.720 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI while his xwOBA was nearly .500. Randy Arozarena went hitless in the 2019 postseason. However, he became the most dangerous hitter last postseason and Randy Arozarena was hitting .377/.442/.831 with 10 home runs and 14 RBI. He set the MLB postseason records of 10 home runs and 29 hits in a single postseason. His xwOBA of .467 tells us that his outstanding performance in the playoffs wasn’t a surprise. In addition, it’s quite interesting to see Salvador Perez on the list. Salvador Perez has a great season so far, he already smashed 42 home runs and collected 104 RBI over 139 games. Back in 2015, the Royals won the World Series Championships and Perez was the World Series MVP. Perez was hitting .364/.391/.455 in the 2015 World Series and he had 8 hits in 5 games. In total, Perez’s batting average was .259 in the 2015 postseason, but his xwOBA was .438. Perez actually made good contact in the 2015 postseason and he was truly important to help the Royals win the first title in 30 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment