When we think of an offensive player as a "Plate Technician," we think of batters who are patient in the batter's box, extend at-bats and draw contact on pitches. The first name that comes to mind initially is Joey Votto, who has led the league in OBP% seven times in his career. However, there are other talented players that fall into this category, including Juan Soto, DJ LeMahieu and Freddie Freeman.
Today, we focus on providing some insight that is applicable for all hitters in all levels of baseball. Using a sample of qualified offensive players from the 2020 MLB season (approximately 142 eligible batters), we focus on how a hitter can better their plate discipline and how it correlates to their statistical performance. The metrics that we will focus on regarding this concept are as follows and are courtesy of Fangraphs:
O-Swing% - Outside-the-zone swing rate
Z-Swing% - Inside-the-zone swing rate
Swing% - Swing rate
O-Contact% - Outside-the-zone contact percentage
Z-Contact% - Inside-the-zone contact percentage
Contact% - Contact percentage
Zone% - Percentage of pitches within the zone
F-Strike% - First-pitch strike percentage
SwStr% - Swinging strike percentage
To analyze every player's approach would be excessive, so we have picked a player from our sample that was highly effective in the metrics above. We will then breakdown how his approach can be replicated for other offensive players to be successful.
Now that we've set the table, let's eat.
LA Angels' David Fletcher
Angels' third-year INF David Fletcher was one of the most effective players in plate discipline and its related data points. Let's remember, he's on a team that includes Anthony Rendon, Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. Out of that talented offensive group, he was the most effective at the plate, in terms of discipline and approach.
Amongst our qualified hitters, Fletcher had the lowest Z-Swing% (49.3%) and SwStr% (3.0%) and the largest O-Contact% (85.8%), Z-Contact% (96.0%) and Contact% (92.0%). We are talking about a player who lays off pitches in the zone and hunts for what he wants. When this doesn't materialize, he is more than happy to generate contact both inside and outside of the strike zone. Below is Fletcher's breakdown of his contact quality per zone, courtesy of Baseball Savant's Illustrator tool:
Notice that a majority of his contact occurs outside of the zone and a moderate amount in middle and away. It is also important to note that Fletcher had the sixth-lowest SO% amongst qualified players at 10.9%. Coupled with a BB% of 8.7%, you'll have tremendous success at the dish and display elite levels of discipline.
Let's Talk Quality of Contact
As previously mentioned, being disciplined at the plate and generating contact translates to positive individual statistics. For the purposes of this article, we focus on correlating a player's batting average to contact, specifically Contact%, O-Contact% and Z-Contact%. The results below are fascinating:
Notice that all correlations were positive, meaning that drawing general, outside and inside contact contributes to a player's batting average and its improvement. While they are low, the highest was that of O-Contact%, meaning that when a hitter draws contact on pitches that are outside the zone, that contact type is most beneficial to increasing a player's average.
Our Conclusion
For any offensive player on any level of baseball, they must put a strong emphasis on drawing contact on pitches outside of the zone. We also recommend that they be smart regarding to swinging on pitches when they are within the strike zone, exercising patience and pitch recognition. This is also accented by being able to draw contact in general as well. With these tips, batters can become effective Plate Technicians and be successful in their development at the dish.
Thank you so much for choosing The Launch Angle for some out-of-the-box baseball analysis! If you liked this post, click on this link for our previous article.
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