What do we think of Alex Verdugo so far? – Battery Power
2025-04-20T13:00:00Z
I didn’t have great expectations for Alex Verdugo in Atlanta. I was just hoping his spot in the bottom of the lineup to be more speed bump than road apple. But he was placed in the leadoff spot…
I didn’t have great expectations for Alex Verdugo in Atlanta. I was just hoping his spot in the bottom of the lineup to be more speed bump than road apple. But he was placed in the leadoff spot right away, giving some credibility to Demetrius Bell’s theory that Brian Snitker wants to take his new toys out of the wrapper and play them in a high leverage spot immediately. I wasn’t crazy about it, but the bold move has worked out for 4/10, 2 doubles, 2 run scored and 2 RBI. The BABIP in this small sample is .444, but is there something to it?
One of the problems with Verdugo is that for the past two years he didn’t hit fastballs very well and his average exit velocity was pretty low.
As you can see, his ability to produce with the four-seam fastball has dropped over the two years. His xwOBA with them really took a nose dive last year. His average exit velocity over all pitches has been in the high 80s. But in the last few games the average exit velocity is up to 92.3 overall and 101.7 on four-seam fastballs. His xwOBA on fastballs isn’t available when I am writing this, but his xBA is .720. This is all certainly small sample theatre, but the early reviews are good.
He’s off to a good start but what do you all think?
Daily Notes
Record: 7-13
Yesterday’s wOBA and xwOBA: .399 / .423 (Season rank: 19th | 12th)
Yesterday’s wOBA and xwOBA allowed: .298 / .265 (Season rank: 21st | 22nd)
Yesterday’s homers: 1
Yesterday’s homers allowed: 1
Record when out-xwOBAing: 5-5 (League: 232-77)
Record when out-xwOBAed: 2-8 (League: 77-232)
Record when out-wOBAing: 7-2 (League: 267-43)
Record when out-wOBAed: 0-11 (League: 43-267)
Record when outhomering: 3-2 (League: 167-45)
Record when outhomered: 0-7 (League: 45-167)
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