In September, I was watching a baseball game on TV and a baseball analyst indicated a batter who had a great 2021 season struggled against fastball this season. After watching the game, I was just wondering who else had the same problem.
To understand a little bit more, I went to check on the statcast website.
Matt Chapman was traded to the Blue Jays in March. In his first season with the Blue Jays, Chapman slashed .229/.324/.433 with 27 home runs and 76 RBI in 155 games. Back in 2021, Chapman hit .210/.314/.403 with 27 home runs and 72 RBI in 151 games. Chapman’s OPS this season was actually higher than his OPS in 2021. Nonetheless, Chapman’s batting average against four-seam fastball was only .177 this season.
Back in 2021, Winker had a great season, hitting .305/.394/.556 with 24 home runs and 71 RBI. Winker was selected to the All-Star game for the first time in his career. At the same time, Eugenio Suarez batted .198/.286/.428 with 31 home runs and 79 RBI. In March, the Reds decided to send Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suarez to the Mariners. However, their stories are not exactly the same in Seattle. Winker slashed .219/.344/.344 with 14 home runs and 53 RBI. His OPS dropped from .950 to .688. In the meantime, Suarez hit .236/.332/.459 with 31 home runs and 87 RBI. Suarez’s performance is surely better than the Winker’s performance this season. Nonetheless, they each faced the similar problem. Against four-seam fastball, Winker’s batting average was only .205 during the regular season and Suarez’s batting average was .229. Last season, Winker had a batting average of .314 against four-seamers and Suarez’s batting average against four-seam fastball was .244.
In addition, Jake Cronenworth hit .239/.332/.390 with 17 home runs and 88 RBI in 2022. It’s his first season with 80+ RBI. However, his batting average dropped from .266 to .239. Additionally, his OPS went down to .722. A key problem is probably about hitting against four-seamers. Last season, Cronenworth was pretty good at hitting against four-seam fastball with a batting average over .300. Nonetheless, his batting average against four-seamers dropped significantly this season.
Finally, Anthony Santander crushed 33 home runs in 2022 and it’s his first time blasting 30+ home runs in a single season. Furthermore, he collected 89 RBI and it’s first season with 80+ RBI. Santander was hitting .240/.318/.455 during the regular season. But, against four-seam fastballs, Santander’s batting average was below .210. Furthermore, Marcus Semien had a fantastic 2021 season, slashing .265/.334/.538 with 45 home runs and 102 RBI. Nevertheless, he was hitting .248/.304/.429 with 26 home runs and 83 RBI this season. Those numbers were not as impressive as in 2021. A possible reason to tell us why Semien didn’t replicate his performance was that he didn’t hit well against four-seamers in 2022.
Fastballs are commonly used in baseball. And, four-seam fastballs are surely used by most MLB pitchers. Hence, batters frequently see four-seamers in each game. Of course, there are some differences from each pitcher’s four-seam fastball. But, how to face a four-seam fastball is definitely an important lesson for MLB batters. Some batters didn’t hit well against four-seamers in 2022 and they will surely have to find a way to improve or make adjustments this offseason.
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