The Curious Case of Didi Gregorius
Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius is off to a great start at the plate. He’s even on pace for a career year, which is pretty good for a guy in his age 28 season that has already been traded twice.
Yankee fans will tell you Gregorius is a superstar. Some in the national media will tell you he’s the American League MVP….
“It feels like a two team race.”@AROD on why the Yankees are the biggest threat to the Astros pic.twitter.com/Ql5Vtr4ah0
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 5, 2018
But I’m here to tell you to pump the brakes. There’s a lot more to the Gregorius’ great start than meets the eye. These are his stats. Just so you can see them with your own eyes.
Didi Gregorius is having an amazing April with 7 HRs and 24 RBI and an OPS of 1.175. He didn’t make his 2017 season debut until April 28. Special player.
— Jack Curry (@JackCurryYES) April 24, 2018
I desperately wanted to reply to this tweet by asking Jack Curry to tweet Gregorius’ road stats, but I didn’t want to come off as a troll. So I’m writing a blog about it. This is how the world works in 2018. Deal with it.
Most normal people would look at the start that Didi Gregorius has had and say “Wow that’s a damn good April.” But as we’ve addressed in earlier blogs, I’m not normal. If Yankee fans are happy, I need to bring them down a peg. I live for this shit.
Let’s get back to that Jack Curry tweet by the way.
I mentioned almost asking him to tweet the road stats for Gregorius, and it’s actually a really interesting topic. So I’ll give you guys some info that you can use to make your own assessments.
*I’ll preface this by saying we all know Yankee Stadium is a totally legitimate major league stadium, doesn’t have a joke of a right field porch, and would absolutely, under no circumstances, make a player look better than he actually.*
Didi Gregorius 2018 HOME: 17-44 (.386), 7 HR, 20 RBI, .509 OBP, .955 SLG, 1.464 OPS
Didi Gregorius 2018 ROAD: 6-27 (.222), 0 HR, 4 RBI, .294 OBP, .407 SLG, .701 OPS
Do with those what you will. But if I were you, I would look at the vast difference in those splits and think Yankee Stadium might have a tiny little something to do with Gregorius’ start to the 2018 season. Also, if I only ever saw him play on the road, I would think the dude was trash.
Here’s a few advanced stats for you:
Average exit velocity: 87.1 MPH
That ranks 205 out of all players with at least 25 balls put into play. Behind Christian Vazquez.
Hardest hit ball: 109.4 MPH
I was shocked when I saw this. It’s the hardest hit ball of Gregorius’ career. By over 3 miles per hour. It was still only the 136th hardest hit ball of the season.
Average Homerun Distance: A whopping 373 feet
That ranks as the 2nd shortest average distance of all players with at least 5 home runs (Jose Ramirez checks in at 367), and the 3rd shortest of all players with more than 3 home runs (Brian Dozier is at 362 somehow)
Average Homerun Apex: 70 feet
Does this really matter that much? Not really, but when coupled with distance it’s a good indicator of how many parks the ball will leave. 70 feet is the 3rd shortest of all players with more than 2 homeruns (Matt Davidson and Aledmys Diaz are both at about 69.8 feet). This basically means Didi is hitting lasers that are getting out because Yankee Stadium is a joke of a major league park totally legitimate stadium.
Baseball savant expects him to be a .285 hitter. Nothing to sneeze at, but that’s essentially on par with the best season Gregorius has ever had. He is on pace to destroy his previous career best .332 OBP, mainly because he’s already walked 15 times (has a career high of 37). This is just what Gregorius is. An above average player. He’s not top 5 at his position. He’s not a superstar.
Oh, yeah.
1. Francisco Lindor
2. Manny Machdo
HUGE GAP
3. Carlos Correa
4. Corey Seager
5. Trea Turner
SLIGHTLY SMALLER GAP
6. Andrelton Simmons
7. Xander Bogaerts
8 Didi Gregorius
-Brian Borders (@bborders12)