STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Josh Bell has deservedly grabbed all of the headlines in the Pirates' roller coaster 2019. That's a given. That's too bad, as Starling Marte's season has been quite worthy of attention.
No matter. People are talking about the 30-year-old center fielder now, after a solid two month stretch across May and June -- in which he slashed .301/.344/.487 with 22 extra base hits in 245 plate appearances -- set the stage for him to take the ball and run with it in July. In the month to date he is slashing .300/.318/.625.
Marte has always had his warts. Some of them amount to nothing more than perception of warts, such as knocks on his supposedly laissez-faire play at times. More concrete knocks come after his tendencies toward some awful swing and miss at stuff outside of the zone. Still that is a bit flimsy, as he has carried a strikeout rate below 20 percent -- roughly considered to be a near-average figure for hitters across MLB -- each year since 2014.
Those critics haven't had much to say about Marte's play in 2019, and he has a few small tweaks to thank for silencing the doubters.
First, he's putting more good pitches in play. Marte has seen roughly the same amount of fastballs year over year -- 60.5 percent this season as opposed to 2018's 59.8 percent -- but has put nearly 3 percent more four-seam fastballs in play, 23.2 percent of all fastballs seen to be exact. And he's done quite a bit more with them:
That may not seem like much, but that 3 percent increase equates to about 40 more chances to do damage, using Marte's 1,351 fastballs seen last season as a rough guide. It also helps when you're pounding the ball like Marte has.
Or, has he? In fact, his average exit velocity on fastballs is down this season to 91.6 mph from 94.9 in 2016. Obviously, he's still slugging the heck out of them, as the chart above shows. He's done this by expanding his canvas a bit. Here's a look at all of Marte's hits that come off of fastballs from this season to last:
This look dovetails nicely with Marte's overall approach, which has opened the strike zone up for him considerably:
Here, we see that Marte has kept opposing pitchers off-balance by utilizing more areas of the zone in different ways. Since this post is turning into a chart party, here's one more:
Contact stats galore!Those are some selected contact peripherals, all via Statcast. Marte has opened up a few more areas of the strike zone, focusing on the areas in which he can inflict maximum carnage. It's very reminiscent of Bell's approach which has worked so well. Adding in a bit of increased launch angle in all the right spots has also done him wonders. It all adds up to the athletic outfielder's best year ever in terms of making the most of his fly balls. He is currently carrying an 18.1 percent HR/FB (home run per fly ball) rate. That figure places as the sixth highest among qualified MLB center fielders.
OK, I lied. One more chart, while we're on the topic of home runs. Marte's power surge amplifies everything we just talked about. Here's a look at where his fifteen 2019 home runs have come from:
Marte's power has come from new places in 2019No longer can pitchers freely come up and in on him with little to no repercussions. So, if an opposing pitcher wants to attack Marte in an effective way, perhaps he could revert to the old tried-and true with a pitch down and away, the one glaring spot that has anecdotally given him the most trouble over the years?
Not so fast.
Here's a look at how his whiffs have changed from last season into the current campaign:
Another chart! This one - Marte's whiffs year-over-yearThis is not shown to say that holes don't exist -- they do -- but the obvious book on how to get Marte out, or at least how to get him into counts that overwhelmingly favor the pitcher, might have been closed. More whiffs elsewhere in the zone and around also coincide with the more aggressive approach laid out above. He is swinging at 2.1 percent more of his pitches seen, after all.
I know what you're asking. Marte still swings at his fair share of junk. "I know I'm not imagining it," you're likely saying. Well, have I got a chart for you. Take a look at how those aforementioned tendencies to chase have affected his overall performance:
O-Swing is how Fangraphs describes swings at pitches on the clear outside of the strike zone — no borderline pitches. Marte still takes those swings, but the chasm between O-Swing and wOBA is much tighter than it was within 2018's huge schism. When you see such a wide berth between O-Swing and wOBA, then you can start to point towards his free-swingin' ways as hurtful. The 2019 rolling graph is a prime example of how an approach that may seem loose might not drag down overall performance.
And Starling Marte's overall performance is helping keep the club's playoff hopes at a faint glimmer instead of being snuffed out entirely. Make no mistake about that, even if he doesn't run out the occasional ground ball.
MORE MOUND VISIT
July 15: Williams' confounding season
July 12: What's eating Crick's slider?
July 11: Frazier’s back, maybe
July 9: Myth-busting the first half
