Re: Reyes, free swingers scare me. Hope his plate discipline continues to improve, although it’s been pretty steady year-over-year.
He just has not been a good hitter until this year at all...maybe he has made an adjustment, maybe he has gotten physically stronger, or maybe he’s just been lucky. I’m still worried about a 5% walk rate, and a small sample, particularly at Reading. His wRC+ stats for the last three full seasons are 88, 88, 158, but his BABIP has jumped by 50 points, and his ISO has jumped by more than 100 points. I hope the ISO jump is real, and not Reading. Hard to explain the BABIP numbers since he has been about a SD below league average in that prior to this year, and now he’s above. It could be fewer popups and soft grounders.
Looking at Fangraphs detailed numbers, his LD% really jumped this season, and he’s pulling the ball significantly less (pull% dropped from 40ish to 30ish) and using all fields. His HR% on fly balls went up a lot, too (Reading again?). From a distance it looks like some adjustments on his part, some strength increase, and some Reading boost. I can’t wait to see what he does at LV.
Final note, I checked his home/road splits and he’s better on the road, so the Reading factor isn’t helping.
