Love fastballs?

A couple of days ago, I watched a baseball game on TV. During the game, an analyst mentioned a team hitting well against fastballs. After watching the game, I was thinking about a question.

In the first half of the 2023 season, which teams are doing a great job against fastballs? To understand a little bit more, I went to check on the statcast website.

Batting Average (Against Fastballs, ~2023.07.09)
Team	BA
Nationals	.294
Braves	.293
Marlins	.286
Reds	.284
Rockies	.282
Red Sox	.281
Diamondbacks	.281
Cardinals	.279

According to the statcast website, 4-seam fastball, sinker (2-seam fastball) and cutter are included in fastballs. So, let’s look at which teams had been hitting well against those pitches.

For the Nationals, the 2023 season isn’t an easy one. The Nationals are now fifth in the division, and it doesn’t seem that they will be a playoff contender. Nonetheless, an interesting thing is that their offense isn’t that bad. The team had an OPS over .700 before the All-Star break and they hit well against fastballs with a .294 BA.

Before the All-Star break, the Atlanta Braves are the only team to win 60 games. And no one will deny that the Braves’ offense is pretty good. The Braves had an OPS over .800 in the first half of the 2023 season. Moreover, they are good at hitting fastballs with a .293 batting average before the All-Star break.

Also, in the NL East, the Marlins are currently in third place. The Marlins have a pretty good start in 2023. In the first half of the 2023 season, the team had a .727 OPS and they owned a batting average over .280 against fastballs.

In addition, the Reds led the NL Central in the first half of the 2023 season and before the All-Star break, they had a .284 BA against fastballs.

 

Expected Weighted On-base Average (xwOBA) (Against Fastballs, ~2023.07.09)
Team	xwOBA
Braves	.385
Cardinals	.381
Dodgers	.376
Angels	.374
Mets	.362
Yankees	.362
Astros	.361
Rangers	.361
Padres	.360
Mariners	.360

In the meantime, let’s look at xwOBA. The Braves owned a batting average over .290 against fastballs before the All-Star break and they surely did make good contact. The Braves had a .385 xwOBA against fastballs and in the first half of the 2023 season, they blasted 96 home runs against fastballs. Furthermore, the Cardinals’ batting average against fastballs was .279 in the first half of the 2023 season and their xwOBA was over .380.

Finally, the Dodgers and the Angels each owned an xwOBA over .370 against fastballs before the All-Star break. The Dodgers had a batting average of .255 against fastballs in the first half of the 2023 season, which doesn’t seem to be very impressive. However, they smashed 88 home runs against fastballs before the Mid-Summer Classic. Additionally, the Yankees also crushed 80+ home runs against fastballs in the first half of this season.

The Braves currently have the best record in the majors. There’s no doubt that they are pretty good at offense with several star batters in the lineup. In the first half of the 2023 season, they have shown that they can crush fastballs. After the All-Star break, it will be interesting to see whether the Braves can continue destroying fastballs. Furthermore, for some teams with a high xwOBA against fastballs in the first half of the season, will they continue making solid contact and see the good outcomes?