Hey everyone, and welcome back to another week of Baseball Bash!  I call it a baseball bash because we talk everything baseball, but we also cover people who bash baseballs.  Speaking of people who bash baseballs, Aaron Judge finally did it!  He tied Roger Maris for the American League home run record by hitting his sixty-first home run in the seventh inning of the Yankees’ bout against Toronto this past Wednesday, September 28th.  While Judge has been a slugger that powered balls into the stands for the entirety of his young career, this record solidifies that he knows his way around the bases.  It is poetic how he hit 61 home runs 61 years after the record was set- Maris hit his 61st home run in the 1961 MLB season(another 61!).

Some quick stats on his home run: The exit velocity off of his bat was 117.4 miles per hour(he averages one of the highest exit velocities in Major League Baseball), the ball took just 3.8 seconds to reach the stands, and was hit a underwhelming 394 feet.  That’s surprisingly low for Judge, who regularly hits home runs that go much farther than that.

We will check back if(and hopefully when) Judge breaks the record.

As for the other side of New York, the NL East crown has been a tight race all season and continued to be in the past three-game series between the New York Metropolitans and the defending-champion Atlanta Braves.  For the first game, Jacob DeGrom really pitched out of character, as he allowed three earned runs en route to a 5-2 loss.  Starter-turned reliever Tylor Megill also allowed two runs.  For Game 2 of the series, star pitcher Max Scherzer also uncharacteristically gave up 4 earned runs and only struck out four batters.  Dansby Swanson seems to always perform well against the Mets, as he had two RBIs(and would go on to hit a home run in Game 3 of the series).  For Game three, which just ended as of the night I am writing this post(10/2), the Mets lost again 5-3 behind a sloppy start from Chris Bassitt.

The reason why this sweep by the Braves of the Mets is significant is because they are now two games atop them in the NL East, and are highly likely to win the division and get a bye.  Additionally, the Braves also have the tiebreaker now for if the Mets tie their record by the end of the regular season, so the Mets only have to win practically the rest of their games.  They play the Nationals for three more games, whereas the Braves play the Marlins.

That’s it for this week!  The MLB playoffs are coming soon, and I’ll definitely be on top of it!  The playoff picture is already crazy from droughts being broken, records being made, and standings continuing to change.  You might’ve also noticed that I’ve been focusing on New York teams(as I am a New York sports fan), so I’ll try my best at covering more teams around the country.  See you next week!

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Baseball Bash!!  Previously, we talked about my favorite baseball statistic, slugging percentage.  Before that post, Aaron Judge was the topic of contention, and now warrants an update.  Judge is now two home runs shy of the AL and Yankee home run record for a single season, and he will be covered soon(hopefully after he breaks the record!)

From one New York team to another, the Mets have just done something which I or many wouldn’t have expected even a year or two ago.  They clinched a spot in the playoffs in what has already been a historic season.  In fact, this was their first since 2016.  For some on the team(such as young slugger Pete Alonso)this would be their first ever playoff games as Mets players.

However, such a turnaround couldn’t have happened just like that right?  You would be right if you said yes.  The Mets brought in billionaire Steve Cohen as their owner, who fundamentally changed the clubhouse.  More importantly, he brought in players that were and will continue to be crucial to their success this season.

The most high profile acquisition the Mets had was of Max Scherzer, who was signed in 2021 for a massive three-year, 130 million dollar deal.  His signing was among a bunch of massive signings for the Mets.  It definitely has paid off.  In his first full year as a Met, Scherzer has an ERA of 2.15 and a WHIP of 0.88, among the best in the league.  He also threw for 6 perfect innings in a game against the Brewers, the same game in which the Mets secured their spot in the playoffs.  This is also impressive considering the fact that injuries sidelined him for parts of the season. Additionally, having two veteran talents back to back in the pitching rotation(with Jacob DeGrom) makes the Mets rotation one of the best in the league.

The Mets also acquired shortstop Francisco Lindor in the same offseason, who was also a star player at the time.  He was signed for an even larger 10-year, 341 million dollar deal!  A four-time All-Star, he has also put up solid numbers for the Metropolitans, batting in 95 runners(which is 9th in the league) and 155 hits, many of which have been crucial for the Mets this year.  His defensive percentage has also been impactful, ranking in the 99th percentile for Outs Above Average(OAA).

While much of the success has occurred due to players signed by the Mets recently, some of the success

has came from players that have been on the team for a while.  Two such examples include Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz, both who have exceeded expectations.  Alonso, a first baseman, is second in the major leagues in RBIs(118), among the top ten in home runs(36) and top ten in OPS(.853).

On the other side of the ball, Edwin Diaz stepped up this year in a major way(maybe its the trumpets?)  Through 56.2 innings as a closing pitcher, he has had a career best 1.43 ERA, recording 30 saves so far.  He was also an All-Star this year in what is reflective of the impact he has had on the Mets.  Also, speaking of the trumpets, here’s a live rendition of his entrance song:

Look, I’m always going to take “Enter Sandman”(Go Yankees), but this is amazing.  Hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of “Baseball Bash” and I’ll see you next week!

In today’s era of Statcast baseball, there are tens–and possibly even hundreds–of statistics of different baseball statistics that help visualize various activities on and off the field.  However, a single statistic alone can not capture everything that needs to be known about a player or a game.  But some statistics in particular can tell so much due to how they are designed.  Many statistics like this stand out, but one is, in my opinion, the best: SLG, or slugging percentage.

Slugging percentage is as old as the sport itself- it was created in its original form in 1867 as “total bases average.”  That name itself sums up what that statistic measures, which is the amount of bases taken per hit.  So not only does it factor for hits itself, but it actually account for what happens during these hits(the amount of bases taken).

Such description can be shown with the formula above.  It proportionally factors for singles, doubles, triples, and home runs, giving stronger hits more weightage.  This means that players that hit more home runs, for example, would have a higher slugging percentage.

How does SLG affect today’s MLB?  Well, in short, the answer is a lot.  As players and teams are hitting more and more home runs in today’s era of MLB baseball, slugging percentages are only increasing year by year.  The highest slugging percentage this year belongs to Aaron Judge, who has a slugging percentage of .683(the highest this year).  This is no surprise, as Judge also leads the league in home runs this year, at 55(as of 9/8/22).  However, he is not the only standout; Paul Goldschmidt has been having a monster season as well.  While not leading in home runs, he has been the most, if not one of the most, effective hitters at the plate this year.  He coincidentally leads the league in batting average this season, which is .329.  So, not only does he have the highest frequency of hits per batting appearance, but he also tends to have efficient hits due to the fact that he has the second highest slugging percentage(.616).

Slugging percentage does have its limitations, however.  It is a metric based on hits only, so it does not account for all instances where a player takes a base(OBP).  One of the biggest reasons why statistics like OBP were drawn up was simply because of the fact that metrics based solely on hits(such as batting average) were too shallow to truly assess a player.  But, slugging percentage, while based off of hits, accounts for the efficiency of them, and thus becomes a useful statistic in assessing a player; without it, there would simply only be a batting average.

As a parting thought:  slugging percentage has other uses in sabermetrics, one being OPS(on base plus slugging).  This intends to factor in other ways of getting on base such as walks and add it to the value that a slugging percentage itself offers.  An OPS near 1 is considered to be best, and only the best in the MLB have such numbers, along with high slugging percentages too.  It’s crazy how correlated statistics can be in baseball.

Young MLB superstar Aaron Judge has been doing the impossible this season.  Whether it is the fact that Judge is on pace to hammer 63 home runs or that comparisons are made to the likes of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, he has clearly become one of the biggest names of this generation.

This begs the question as to what leads to his success, and it can be observed by the ever growing era of statistics that surround him and the league in the live-ball era.  For one, he crushes baseballs.  In the 2022 season, Judge has had a batting average of .332 against fastballs, which are the most common pitch thrown in today’s MLB.  This, in turn, has allowed him to hit 30 home runs just off of fastballs.  In other words, he has been able to master the the pitch that MLB players most commonly see, and as a result it has made dividends for both him and the Yankees.  While offspeed pitches have not been his forte, Judge has still been able to capitalize on some of them.  Curveballs are also often culprits for home runs, and Judge has hit 17 home runs this year just off of them.

However, Judge hasn’t only been successful hitting home runs, but also getting on base.  His on base percentage(OBP, or also known as on base average), which measures how often a player gets on base by any means, is .396, which ranks among the best in Major League baseball this year.  One of the biggest factors for the high on base average that Judge has has been his walk percentage(or BB%), which measures the percentage of plate appearances where he walks on balls.  In 2022, his BB% ranks in the 96th percentile among all players, which makes him among the best and among a elite group of players this season.

One other statistic worth noting is his slugging percentage.  At a massive .661, he has the highest slugging percentage this season, which accounts for the utility of all of his times on base(for example, the amount of bases per appearance such as singles, doubles, home runs etc.).

While there are many metrics that show that Judge has been one of the best offensively, he has also been solid defensively.  A statistic commonly used in the Statcast era to measure a player’s defense is OAA, or Outs Above Average.  He is in the 76th percentile for OAA, which while as not as high as the offensive percentiles, shows that Judge is above average as an outfielder.  To hone in on a specific defensive statistic, the actual catch probability, Judge has a chance of 90%, which shows that he catches almost any ball that goes in his general direction.  Judge has also made highlight-reel catches like this, in what represents who he will be as a player years down the line.