Elly De La Cruz Breakout: 3 Reasons Why Reds Phenom’s Stardom is Real

This article is compiled from Elly De La Cruz’s stardom may finally be here: Three reasons why the Reds phenom’s breakout could be real

The Elly De La Cruz Superman Show opens on Wednesday night (April 25, Taiwan time). The Cincinnati Reds held on for a 7-4 comeback win against the Phillies. De La Cruz had three hits in five at-bats, including a double and three steals. After this game, the 22-year-old’s hitting numbers reached .313/.412/.651 in the 2024 season, as well as seven home runs and 15 stolen bases.

Reds head coach David Bell in an interview with United Presshe was asked what impressed him most about De La Cruz’s performance in Wednesday’s victory, and he replied: “The most important thing is a careful attitude. He still works hard and understands the court situation. random bases, it’s about understanding the pitch on the mound and what kind of pitch the opponent is throwing at, and then that’s when the quick feet show that’s the magic.”

A year ago at this time, De La Cruz was one of the top prospects in the minor leagues, leaving a mark on the major league landscape with his high and long home runs, lightning fast runs and complete hitting pre-season. say to yourself. As for the bad? De La Cruz, who played 98 games last season, only hit .235/.300/.410, and his strikeout rate increased to 33.7%; this makes his OPS + in 2023 only 89, which means that his hitting performance is better than the level of The average is still 11% lower.

At the start of this season, his performance was also particularly poor. De La Cruz opened the season with just eight hits in 33 plate appearances, hitting .242 and striking out 17 times. But in the tenth game of the season against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 9, Taiwan time, he not only hit a double home run in one game, but also hit a home run on and off the field; and since then, it has been pitchers hitting with full force in every game. In the most recent 15 games (through April 25), De La Cruz had 15 hits in 50 at-bats, raising his batting average to .360.

De La Cruz still has some flaws on the field. However, a closer look reveals some encouraging signs. These hints indicate that De La Cruz’s hot performance in April was no fluke, but a sign that he is about to break through and enter a new phase. Here are three reasons to believe that he is going to take another big step.

1. Lower run rate

De La Cruz’s official height is 6 feet 5 inches (196 cm), and may appear to be an inch or two taller than listed. Regardless of whether this recording is accurate or not, the point is that his arms are very long, and hitters with long arms usually don’t have very good batting averages. Baseball is a game of swinging the bat and hitting the ball. A high strike rate has always been De La Cruz’s destiny. There is nothing he can do about it, he has long hands.

De La Cruz had a real problem chasing bad balls last year, especially because he was often running changeup pitches, which made his strikeout rate even worse. He would sometimes extend his strike zone, hit a ball he shouldn’t have swung at, and get outs.

But this year is different,De La Cruz arguably cut his batting average in half., and showed better performance in judging good and bad balls. Nothing can be said other than directly looking at the changes in De La Cruz’s strikeout rate (O-Swing%) in the chart below:

The improvement in hitting is also reflected in De La Cruz’s walk rate: He is currently walking 13.4% of his pitches this year, compared to a major league average of 8.2% last year. Among the 233 hitters with more than 400 plate appearances in 2023 and more than 90 plate appearances in 2024, ranked by their lowest walk rate in the rookie season, De La Cruz was ninth with a 5.2 percent decrease. It can be seen that this young man has made great progress in controlling the strike zone.

2. Better hitting power of fly balls

De La Cruz’s average bat speed last season was 91.7 mph.At the start of this year’s season, it went up to 92.7 miles, which is a very good result. The average major league hitter can make is 88.7 miles.

De La Cruz has such unique power, that to better utilize it, he should lower his ground ball rate of 52.9%. His ground ball rate last year was also as high as 53.9%. De La Cruz still hasn’t nailed down his ground balls, but when he does get the ball in the air, he produces a hit that is stronger than other hitters.