Jackson Holliday: Three Reasons to Believe in Orioles Prospect Despite MLB Debut Struggles

This article is compiled from Jackson Holliday has struggled in his MLB debut so far, but here are three reasons to believe in the Orioles prospect

Baltimore Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday,CBS is ranked No. 1 among the season’s top 50 rookies, has been playing in the major leagues for over a week. But the bad news is that Holliday suffered a major slump in his first week in the major leagues. Prior to the April 17th game, he had just one hit in his first 25 major league at-bats, and the strike-to-walk. the ratio was even 14-1, which was very difficult for hitters who were not ideal.

The good news for Holliday is that major league performance is not determined by the first few games, but by how players adjust and adapt to the environment over time. Several of his Orioles teammates reflect this fact.

• Catcher Adley Rutschman: Over 176 at-bats, .210/.296/.389
• Shortstop Gunnar Henderson: .224/.339/.394 in 289 at-bats
• Outfielder Colton Cowser: .115/.286/.148 in first 77 at-bats

Rutschman is now an integral part of the team, Henderson has MVP potential, and Cowser is slowly establishing himself in the Orioles’ talented field. Ideally, those three players, along with Holliday, should shine when they first hit the big leagues, but sometimes you have to be patient. This is especially true for Holliday, which doesn’t turn 21 until December.

We could talk all day about the dangers of analyzing from small samples, but instead of going into it, let’s look at three ideas from each of Holliday’s first weeks. Let’s talk slowly together!

1. Correct fighting strategy

We know what you’re thinking, with only one hit in the first 25 at-bats, how good can a hitting strategy get? But when analyzing a small sample, you have to analyze the mating process separately from the results.

The broad concept of “batting strategy” measures a hitter’s ability in several aspects: the ability to distinguish between good and bad pitches, the ability to catch easily attacked pitches and adjust to different situations (including the pitcher’s reaction to you, the umpire’s strike zone, and the current situation).

In terms of batting strategy, Holliday’s run rate is on the high side (33.3%), but his batting swing strategy is accurate. The picture above shows the basic position of all pitches with no movement before Holliday’s two strikeouts. Almost all of the strikes were under the strike zone or in the outside corner. It follows that Holliday targets pitches above the strike zone or in the inside corners.

What can be seen is that where the hot hitting zone spans the entire home plate strike zone, there are several outlying sample points that gradually return to the center as the number of samples increases. Another point worth noting is that Holliday had a habit of attacking inside the strike zone in the minor leagues, and his front foot is also slightly open, which shows that he is better at playing inside corners. Interestingly, Holliday can also show his attacking ability against passes that are more inside.

Judging a hitter’s batting strategy is often subjective.SEAGER“index of. By this metric, Holliday is the Orioles’ top hitter, which means that his current offensive strategy is really good.

So, why not get good results?

2. The wrong time of the sluice

“Swing timing” is a simpler concept than “batting strategy,” and the wrong swing speed has many consequences, including missed swings (which Holliday is currently suffering ) and foul balls. The timing of the swing also affects the direction and quality of the ball hit. The reason is simple.

With that in mind, Holliday didn’t hit a fly ball until Game 7 on April 17, when Pablo López’s changeup was hit as a lazy fly ball to right field. Most of Holliday’s first week hits were grounders, fly balls and fly balls hit to the opposite direction, includingThis big fly ball to right fieldapart fromA bunt that stayed in the air a little too long in left-center field was put away.

We mentioned Holliday’s offensive style in the minor leagues earlier, and we can also look at his distribution of hits when he was hot. Each point in the figure below is the distribution of each ball’s landing point when Holliday’s batting angle is greater than 10 degrees (his average batting angle in the minor leagues is 9.9 degrees, but in the major leagues the average is only 1.9 degrees).

There are a few instances where Holliday hits a fly ball to the left side, but in most cases, his strike lands to the right side of center. But in the first week of the major leagues, Holliday’s bat position was not like this. It may be due to the effect of lifting his legs, but we think that Holliday is still adjusting to the speed of the ball and the pitching level of the players. major leagues-. these pitchers are in the major leagues rather than in Triple-A purpose. With good timing on his swing, Holliday is able to get the ball to center field again.