Topps Gallery is a product that you can collect baseball cards and arts at the same time. It consists of artworks from several artists and at the same time, you can collect top rookie and baseball stars. There are two autograph cards (sticker signatures or cut signatures) in a monster hobby box. This time, I bought a few packs and found a big smile.
Francisco Lindor was traded to the New York Met, so in 2021, we shall see him with the Mets jersey on baseball cards. Lindor made his MLB debut on June 14, 2015, since then, he has been a four-time All-Star and a two-time Gold Glove winner. In his 6 seasons with the Indians, he batted .285/.346/.488 with 138 home runs and 411 RBI.
Lindor is a four-time All-Star and there is no doubt that he's a great player and can consistently contribute to the team. His batting average remained higher than .270 from 2015 to 2019 and he finished 4 seasons with an above .800 OPS. However, his batting average dropped to .258 and he had an OPS of .750 last season. Both stats were the lowest in Lindor’s career so far.
Lindor is a good switch hitter, in his first two seasons in the major league, he posted a higher than .290 batting average either against lefties or against right-handed pitchers. Nonetheless, things are getting different. Lindor each posted a below .260 batting average against right-handed pitchers in 2017 and 2018. Meanwhile, his batting average against lefties each went above .300 in these two seasons. In the 2019 season, Lindor did hit much better against right-handed pitchers since his batting average against righties rose to .298. However, he only batted .258 against lefties. Last season, Lindor only batted .247 against right-handed pitchers. We might say it was a shortened season, but it’s something worth looking at.
When facing lefties, Lindor had some problems against breaking pitches at the beginning of his career, but he improved gradually and his xwOBA against breaking pitches was .304 last season. Meanwhile, Lindor was fine against lefties’ fastballs and offspeed pitches. xwOBA against these two types of pitches remained above .300 from 2015 to 2020. But xwOBA against left-handed pitchers’ fastballs dropped gradually from 2017 to 2020.
Against right-handed pitchers, Lindor’s xwOBA was nearly .400 against offspeed pitches last season. However, against righties’ breaking pitches, Lindor’s xwOBA was .278. Also, Lindor’s xwOBA against right-handed pitchers’ fastballs dropped gradually from 2018 to 2020 and last year when facing righties’ fastballs, Lindor posted a .329 xwOBA. It was the first time to see Lindor’s xwOBA against righties’ fastballs go below .350. Lindor didn’t win the 2020 Gold Glove award, but we probably won’t worry about his defense and he had only one error last season. Lindor’s batting stats were not as good as they used to be. However, Lindor’s hard-hit rate was 41.1%, highest in his career. At the same time, his xwOBA was .333, which wasn’t too bad. Lindor just turned 27 last November. In the 2021 season, Mets fans are looking forward to seeing an All-Star shortstop bounce back. But, it’s going to be important to see his performance against right-handed pitchers.
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