We're only two weeks into what's going to be a long season and we've already seen some incredible things. We've witnessed a three-homer game (Ryan Braun), a grand slam by a pitcher (Madison Bumgarner), and most incredible of all, only 1 manager ejection (Rick Renteria on April 8th). The big news of the first few weeks has been, of course, the implementation of the long-sought-after instant replay system that MLB added before this season.
So far, it's working well, though with some flaws, namely that managers who use their challenge early in a game are left to hope that no call goes against them until the 7th inning. At that point, umpires control all reviews, but before the 7th inning, managers are left to make a difficult decision. Who knows if a more controversial call will come up later in the game?
My suggestion: continue to limit the manager to 1 challenge but allow the umpires to initiate replays whenever they feel like they need to. This would solve the problem of managers prematurely using challenges in the 2nd inning that would have been better served in the 5th or 6th inning.
Moving on to the most important news: the batter impact scores at the 2-week mark of the season. You've hopefully read my overview of how batter impact works. Here are your leaders for Total BI so far this season. For the purposes of these results, I've ignored batters with less than 20 plate appearances (mostly pitchers and pinch-hitters). Please click on the image for a better view.
The real shockers to me are Charlie Blackmon, Chris Colabello, and Jose Abreu. Blackmon, of course, has both the highest batting average and highest batter impact in the league, a generally uncommon feat. But even more impressive are the players who are achieving high batter impacts while not hitting well for average, Colabello and Abreu. Colabello has only the 56th best BA in the league, but the 3rd best BI, while Abreu ranks 114th and 7th respectively. These two players, in essence, are making each hit count. Looking at just their batting averages does not reveal the full story of how their seasons are going so far.
Even more surpiring is one key absence in this top ten BI list: the Cubs' Emilio Bonifacio. Though he's hitting .435 right now, Bonifacio's BI is only 2.9862, significantly lower than Blackmon's, who has the same number of hits. This is because out of Bonifacio's 20 hits, only 3 were extra-base hits and he has only 2 RBIs. Bonifacio, though he is effectively getting on base, is not contributing as much to his team's scoring as some of the other players on this list, and Batter Impact shows that distinction.
Both Colorado and San Francisco have 2 players in the top 10, which makes sense, as both are in the top 4 teams in runs scored. Colorado, in fact, has the highest team batting average in the league (.306), a staggering number that is sure to decline over the course of the season.
And if you're interesting in knowing the worst hitter in the MLB right now? The Cincinnati Reds' Zack Cozart, who has a gloomy -7.581 as his BI so far this season. Hopefully he can turn that ship around this week!
The real shockers to me are Charlie Blackmon, Chris Colabello, and Jose Abreu. Blackmon, of course, has both the highest batting average and highest batter impact in the league, a generally uncommon feat. But even more impressive are the players who are achieving high batter impacts while not hitting well for average, Colabello and Abreu. Colabello has only the 56th best BA in the league, but the 3rd best BI, while Abreu ranks 114th and 7th respectively. These two players, in essence, are making each hit count. Looking at just their batting averages does not reveal the full story of how their seasons are going so far.
Even more surpiring is one key absence in this top ten BI list: the Cubs' Emilio Bonifacio. Though he's hitting .435 right now, Bonifacio's BI is only 2.9862, significantly lower than Blackmon's, who has the same number of hits. This is because out of Bonifacio's 20 hits, only 3 were extra-base hits and he has only 2 RBIs. Bonifacio, though he is effectively getting on base, is not contributing as much to his team's scoring as some of the other players on this list, and Batter Impact shows that distinction.
Both Colorado and San Francisco have 2 players in the top 10, which makes sense, as both are in the top 4 teams in runs scored. Colorado, in fact, has the highest team batting average in the league (.306), a staggering number that is sure to decline over the course of the season.
And if you're interesting in knowing the worst hitter in the MLB right now? The Cincinnati Reds' Zack Cozart, who has a gloomy -7.581 as his BI so far this season. Hopefully he can turn that ship around this week!
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