A couple of days ago, I was watching a baseball game and on TV, a pitcher threw a curveball. The batter was ready to swing and he crushed it. The ball was long gone and it was a home run. The batter seems quite satisfied with that swing and that made me think whether he’s hitting curveballs very well this season.
To understand a little bit more, I went to check on the great statcast website.
Jose Ramirez has a great season so far. He now hits .284/.358/.561 with 21 home runs and 85 RBI. Ramirez was selected to the All-Star game again this year and he has a batting average over .400 against curveballs. However, Ramirez hasn’t smashed a home run against curveballs this season.
In addition, Ryan Mouncastle crushed 33 home runs last season and he finished 6th in the AL Rookie of the year voting. This season, he hits .255/.295/.436 with 14 home runs and 52 RBI thus far. Against curveballs, Mouncastle hits very well with a .450 batting average and already blasted 4 home runs.
Paul Goldschmidt also has a great season. It’s his 4th season with the Cardinals and he currently slashes .332/.412/.611 with 25 home runs and 81 RBI. Against curveballs, he’s hitting well with a batting average of .400.
Moreover, Trea Turner was selected to the Midsummer Classic for the first time in his career last season and this season, he became an All-Star again. Trea Turner now has 129 hits, 2nd most in the majors. Among those 129 hits, 20 hits were hit against curveballs. And, he has a batting average over .370 against curveballs.
Furthermore, Shohei Ohtani is surely a player who can crush curveballs. Ohtani has 4 home runs against curveballs. He and other 5 players each own a batting average over .300 when opposing pitchers throw curveballs.
Some players have a good batting average against curveballs. But, do they truly hit a curveball hard?
Ryan Mountcastle’s xwOBA against curveballs is over .500, which shows that he can really make solid contact. However, there are some interesting cases. Against curveballs, Juan Soto’s xwOBA is .400 and Carlos Santana’s xwOBA is .395. But, they each own a batting average under .200 against curveballs. It will be worth watching whether they will collect more hits against curveballs in the rest of the season.
Additionally, Anthony Rizzo blasted 3 home runs against curveballs by far this season and his xwOBA against curveballs is .390. In the meantime, Corey Seager has a batting average under .300 against curveballs. Nonetheless, his xwOBA is over .380 against curveballs. Furthermore, Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith and Kyle Schwarber each have an xwOBA over .380 when opposing pitchers throw curveballs.
As we can see, Ryan Mountcastle has a batting average over .400 against curveballs and it’s not a surprise because he truly made solid contact. Mountcastle probably won’t hit 30+ home runs as he did last season. However, pitchers still have to be very cautious if they want to throw a curveball to Mountcastle. Additionally, several players can make good contact against curveballs and each have an xwOBA over .380. It will be interesting to see whether their batting average against curveballs will go up a little later this season. In particular, Juan Soto’s batting average against curveballs is only .130 now.
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