Christian Yelich is a former MVP but he has struggled over the past several years to recreate that success. This due in large part to battling injuries. Well he back to dominating and player at an elite level. I will break down what has changed and share what he is doing differently to create this success. First, he has raised his launch angle, almost doubling it from 3.5 to 6.1. While he has never been a high LA guy, he is giving himself a better chance to succeed by getting the ball a little more in the air more often to find more space to land hits. Second, he is punishing breaking pitches this year. He has always been a good fastball hitter but this year he has begun to close up that hole in his game and is hitting .324 and slugging an absurd .649 against breaking pitches. This is due to a couple factors, he his above average in chase rate and BB%. He also is above average in bat speed this is allowing him to cover more pitches. Third, he is hits the ball hard, a lot. He ranks in the 80th percentile in average exit velocity and in the 92nd percentile in hard hit rate at 51%. This coupled with his above average plate discipline and improved LA allow him to drive the ball to all fields. Fourth, he is pulling the ball at a career rate. In no other season of his career he was above 35.8% pull rate, this season he is sitting at 43.7%. Finally, As you can see from the R visualization, he punishes the ball in the lower 2/3 of the zone and the only piece of the zone he really struggles with is high and tight, which is probably why he has struggled with cutters in and high from RHP. I expect Christian to continue to dominate the NL Central this year. Data procured from Major League Baseball (MLB) baseball savant

The curious case of Christopher Morel. He projects as a stat cast darling. He lights up the top of the league with Exit Velocities, Bat speed and barrel rates. Why has he struggled so much to create consistency this year? Let's break down what he has done well and what has held him back. He ranks near the top of the league in Exit Velocities, Bat Speed, and Barrels. This means he is doing a great job of creating hard hit baseballs and as we know, this means that harder you hit the ball, the more often, the better chance you have of landing hits, especially extra base hits. He also is walking at a great rate of over 12%. He is chasing at a 24.7% clip which is below league average, so he is not beating himself. Some of what has happened to him is a bout of bad luck. He is underperforming as compared to all his expected statistics. His expected BA is .267 and his expected slugging is .502, while his actual BA is .209 and slugging is .400. If he is doing all this well, what is holding him back. Upon first glance his launch angle seems to be good, but when you look at his LA sweet spot he ranks in the 10th percentile at 28%. This means he either hits the ball on the ground or way up in the air. His line drive percentage at 18% which is well below league average. The other thing that he could improve on is his whiff rate, while he has a pretty good handle on the strike zone he is whiffing at a rough rate. He is in the 20th percentile whiffing at almost 30%. Upon looking at his metrics, if he could shorten his swing without sacrificing bat speed and stay on plane longer, he could help improve both of those metrics. Either way, Christopher Morel is an incredible talent and has all the tools to become an elite offensive player. Data Procured from Major League Baseball (MLB) baseball savant

Alec Bohm has enjoyed a career year and has been a huge part of the success that the Phillies have enjoyed as a top team in all MLB. There are a few factors that have led to his enormous growth and success. The first is his ability to square the ball up and hit it hard and hit it hard consistently. In R, I was able to create a data table showcasing some of his metrics and you can see his average exit velo on all pitches is almost 91MPH. This puts him in the 74th percentile. He is also above average in barrels, LA sweet spot, and hard hit rate. The second thing his is doing extremely well is putting his bat on almost everything that is thrown to him. He is only striking out at a 13.5% rate which puts him in the top 7% of all MLB. He also sits in the 92nd Percentile in whiff rate. He fights off tough pitches to put the ball in play. While he doesn't walk at an extremely high rate, he is extremely aggressive at the plate because he is still in the 70th percentile in chase rate. The last thing is he is pulling the ball far more than he did last year. You can see this from his spray chart in R. He is seeking to drive the ball and it has caused him to tap into more power than before. I expect Alec to continue to be a key piece to the Phillies playoff run. Stay tuned for more player analysis. Data procured from Major League Baseball (MLB) baseball savant

Ryan Weathers has been a welcome breath of fresh air for the Miami Marlins this season. He has dropped his ERA from 6.55 last season to 3.55 this season. There are some major reasons why this is happening. First, he is placing his pitches at a much higher rate where they need to be. He is keeping his sweeper and changeup down. He is keeping his sinker more arm side and his 4-Seam fastball more glove side. This has led to reduced BB rate from 11.3% last year to 6.7% this year. With this better placement he has also changed the hitter profiles against him. He has risen his GB rate from 38% to 52.2%. This has led to the ability to keep the ball on the ground. The second thing that allows him to be much more effective is the growth and maturation of his off speed and breaking pitches. Last year, his sweeper was hit at a .229 rate and slugged at a .521 rate. This year that is down to being hit at a .119 and slugged at a .190 rate. This has made it 55% whiff percentage. His changeup is down to a .193 and .398 from .304 and .507 and batters are whiffing at a 39.4% rate. This is due to high spin rates from his sweeper and the spin axis that it comes out of which allows for his pitches to play very well off of each other. His 4-Seam and Changeup play off each other and his Sinker and Sweeper play off each other out similar movement profiles which allow for him to split the plate in half. The last thing to note from his profile that has changed dramatically is his pitch selection. While he hasn't really added any new pitches. He is throwing his sinker nearly 10% more than he did last year. This has played into his ability to both keep the ball on the ground and provide more value to his elite sweeper. He has truly taken a big jump this year. Stay tuned for more player analysis Data Procured from Major League Baseball (MLB) baseball savant

Nolan Gorman over the past week has broken out and become one of the hottest hitters in all of baseball. What has facilitated this breakout? I have pulled two different stretches of his metrics to be able to determine this breakout. I will be comparing his April of 2024 to his last two+ weeks and comparing the metrics in R to help determine this. First, his exit velo is up from 85MPH to over 91MPH. This has facilitated to a much better barrel rate and sweet spot rate. Second, his launch angle is up from 16% to 19% this has allowed him, with the increased exit velo to drive the ball in the gaps and over the fence more. Third, He has slightly shortened his average swing length which has made his swing more compact without sacrificing bat speed. This has allowed for more consistent contact. I have linked two videos from MLB film room that show some of the changes he has implemented over the last two weeks. The two things that are of note is his stance is noticeably more open. The second thing is the starting position of his hands in his swing load. This has allowed him to make his swing more compact and provide a better launch position, thus leading to the rise in barrel rate, launch angle and exit velo. The last thing to mention is he is crushing breaking balls over the past two weeks. He has always been a good fastball hitter. He hit breaking balls at a .280 clip in May, up from .167 in April. This is largely due to his change in swing which is allowing his bat to stay in zone and on plane much better which allows him to cover both fastballs and breaking pitches equally well. Nolan has been a revelation for the Cardinals and I look for it to continue. Stay tuned for more player analysis. Videos found on Major League Baseball (MLB) film room Data procured from Major League Baseball (MLB) baseball savant and MLB.com Nolan Gorman swing and miss April 2024 https://www.mlb.com/video/thyago-vieira-swinging-strike-to-nolan-gorman-m8exqo?q=nolan%20gorman%20strikes%20out&cp=MIXED&qt=FREETEXT&p=0