I bought some packs of Topps Update 2019 last year. When I opened a pack of them, I saw a thick card and I thought it was probably a manufactured patch card. I carefully checked every card in the pack and tried to find a cool rookie card or maybe a short print card. Then, I saw a star on the card and I was so overwhelmed. A Nolan Arenado All-Star stitches autograph, what a great card. I couldn’t believe it.
Nolan Arenado made his MLB debut on April 28, 2013, in the Colorado Rockies uniform. In his 8 years with the Rockies, he batted .293/.349/.541 and posted an OPS of .890. He is a 5-time All-Star and 8-time Gold Glove winner. Yes, he has won the Gold Glove award every year since making his MLB debut. In the first week of February, Arenado was officially traded to the Cardinals. Arenado was hitting .253/.303/.434 last season. It was a rough season for Arenado and it will be truly interesting to know how he will perform in St. Louis. Coors Field is a hitter-friendly ballpark, more precisely, the most hitter-friendly ballpark in the MLB. So, let’s look at Arenado’s home/away performance.
There’s no doubt that Arenado played very well at Coors Field. His batting average was above .300 and posted an OPS of .985. Meanwhile, it’s obvious that there’s a difference between home games and away games. Arenado’s OPS was .793 in away games and had a batting average of .263. In reality, Arenado was doing fine in away games.
In addition, take a look at Arenado’s performance year by year. Arenado’s batting average was very consistent at home and mostly it remained above .300. However, there were some ups and downs when looking at Arenado’s away batting average, in particular, Arenado failed to hit .250 in 2013, 2018 and 2020.
And we look at OPS, Arenado had an away OPS of .636 last year, which is the second lowest in his career so far. But, there are 4 years that he posted an over .800 OPS in away games.
It’s very common to see a Rockies player hit much better at home. It’s the same case for Arenado. We can see differences in BA and OPS between home and road. But, overall, Arenado stayed quite productive most of the time in purple pinstripes. How about Arenado at Busch Stadium? He played 24 games at Busch stadium and slashed .278/.337/.511 with an OPS of .848. In a not really small sample size, It showed that Arenado was comfortable hitting at Busch Stadium. Left-shoulder injury did bother Arenado and affected his hitting performance last year. His numbers in 2020 were not as good as he used to show. However, when Arenado is healthy, he can hit consistently even not at Coors Field. Of course, there were some ups and downs. Meanwhile, Arenado’s performance was fine at Busch Stadium. Fans really don’t have to worry about his defense since his Outs Above Average was 7, ranking 5th in the majors last season. Thus, if his shoulder is fine and he stays healthy as he normally does, Arenado was only placed on the IL twice in his career so far, it will be possible to see Arenado bounce back in the 2021 season.
No comments:
Post a Comment