Keep or Kut – As the season begins, a lot of the numbers lie to you, but the changes in K-rate, BB-rate and draw percentage for hitters can be telling. Pete (@PeteBBaseball) and Chad (@ChadYoung) examine some of the biggest changes in baseball through these three statistics. Join Pitcher List Plus and get an ad-free website and access to the Pitcher List Discord community, while supporting the podcast.
Timestamps
3:56 – Five Most Improved K-Rates: Gio Urshela, Joey Wendle, Yordan Alvarez, Alec Bohm, and Javy Baez. The drop in Ks for Javy comes as a surprise, and there’s reason to doubt its validity.
10:48 – Five Biggest Withdrawal Rate Increases: Carson Kelly, Franmil Reyes, Tucker Barnhart, Jarred Kelenic, and Carlos Correa. Should we just wait for Reyes?
14:48 – What to do with Kelenic.
21:14 – Largest year-over-year walk rate gains: Jesus Aguilar, Jesse Winker, Eduardo Escobar, Michael A. Taylor, and Anthony Santanderincluding a deep dive on Santander and a detour to Alec Bohm.
31:02 – Biggest walk rate drops: Carson Kelly (again), Shohei Ohtani, Jonathan India, Bryce Harper, and Yasmani Grandal
38:34 – Biggest increases in pull rate: Ryan McMahon, Jurickson Profar, Rhys Hoskins, Charlie Blackmon, and Eric Hosmer. We are not ready to sell Profar.
47:04 – But we don’t buy Hosmer either.
50:39 – Biggest Drops in Pull Rate: Joey Wendle, Brad Miller, Wil Myers, Andrew McCutchen, and Mike Zunino. Zunino with power is a poor man Salvador Perezbut otherwise…
58:34 – Antoine Rizzo and the little porch
1:05:05 – Flash round! With: Julio Rodriguez, Randy Arozarena, willy adames, Trey Mancini, Jose Berrios, Framber Valdes, Tyler Mahle, and Trevor Rogers.