Talk about having a CAREER year as a 7-year vet. To start 2024, Ryan O'Hearn is quietly having one of the best starts in all of Major League Baseball. A thread as to why⬇️⬇️
When diving into some Statcast numbers, you can see why O'Hearn is having a great start to the year (a lot of red is good).
Let's dive deeper into some batted ball data. A constant theme throughout this thread, O'Hearn is putting up not only career numbers but well above league avg numbers. O'Hearn is not only making more contact than ever before but making more hard and efficient contact.
How about the type of contact he is making? In order to do damage, you need to hit the ball in the air. Ground balls won't produce much damage. Less ground balls and more line drive/fly balls✅
How efficient is your contact? @jhirsh04 cooked up some 🔥 to show us. 💣SweetAir% credits your ability to square up the ball and hit it hard. 💣Banger% takes SweetAir% then accounts for plate discipline. 💣Pullside Banger% is the same as Banger% but looks at pullside barrels.
What about plate discipline? You are bound to find success when you don't: ✅ Chase ✅ Swing and miss ✅ Swing and miss in the zone
How does he stack up to our Big 3 Metrics? CAREER HIGH's: Bat Speed✅ Smash Factor ✅ Swing Decisions ✅
So how does all of this affect his actual performance and predicted performance? Let's just say, he's raking and should be raking even more if it wasn't for some bad batted ball luck.
With all of that said, I think he can STILL get better and here is how: HeartSwing% O'Hearn - 65.0% League Avg - 71.9% PullAir% O'Hearn - 27.3% League Avg - 33.6% By swinging at pitches in the heart of the zone while also pulling the ball in the air more, damage will go up📈📈