Mighty Righty Tommy Edman | FanGraphs Baseball

A sure joke has been making the rounds for some time now. It’s actually easy. It goes, “Tommy Edman, energy hitter? [Pause for laughter].” I made this joke myself through the Tokyo Sequence. If and when the joke is definitely humorous, it’s as a result of Edman doesn’t have the normal look or profile of an influence hitter. That sort of incongruity makes an amazing premise each for jokes and for a startlingly excessive proportion of youngsters’s motion pictures. A switch-hitting, 5-foot-9 utility participant who desires to be an influence hitter is roughly as quirky as a rat who desires to be a gourmand chef, a robotic who desires to seek out love, or a snail who desires to be a race automotive driver.

Edman by no means reached double-digit dwelling runs till he received to the majors, and he has nonetheless by no means hit greater than 13 in a season. Nonetheless, I feel it’s time we modified our inflection. Tommy Edman is an influence hitter, or on the very least, he’s half an influence hitter. That may come as a shock, even to these of us who’ve been rooting for him (and considering of him as Cousin Tommy) ever since his debut in 2019.

All three of these dwelling runs are from this yr, and all three have been hit tougher than 108 mph. Edman’s eight homers this season are tied for sixth in baseball. He additionally ranks twenty seventh amongst certified gamers in slugging share (.514) and sixteenth in remoted slugging share (.271). Nonetheless, it goes with out saying {that a} sizzling begin like this gained’t final without end. Edman is hitting the ball laborious, however his bat velocity continues to be nicely under common. He’s succeeding by pulling tons of balls within the air, and whereas I’d like to see him maintain onto these good points like high-contact guys Daniel Murphy and Justin Turner earlier than him, we’ll have to attend and see the place issues settle. For that purpose, I don’t essentially wish to give attention to this energy surge. I wish to suppose larger.

Let’s begin with Edman’s bat velocity. As I discussed, he’s at the moment netting out within the twentieth percentile, however the splits are what first caught my eye. As a lefty, Edman’s 68.4 mph bat velocity would put him within the tenth percentile, subsequent to Jose Altuve. However as a righty, his 73.7 mph mark would put him within the 78th percentile, subsequent to Matt Olson. In different phrases, greater than two-thirds of the league fall someplace between Edman’s righty and left bat speeds! The graph under comes from Baseball Savant.

It’s not simply that Edman tends to swing tougher as a righty. The distribution is narrower, too. As a lefty, he makes a bit extra contact and is extra prone to take weaker swings. As a righty, he’s nearly by no means taking weak cuts. On the graph, his weakest swing as a righty is stronger than his common swing as a lefty! It’s not simply the swings, both. It’s the outcomes. These are Edman’s profession numbers.

It’s commonplace for switch-hitters to have extra energy from one aspect or the opposite, however that’s an unbelievable hole. I used to be interested by the way it stacked up traditionally, so I ran a couple of Stathead searches, searching for each participant who has batted not less than 500 occasions from each side of the plate. (As a be aware, the numbers are barely totally different than those above as a result of Edman has batted right-on-right 66 occasions over the course of his profession, and you may’t search Stathead only for all right-handed PAs. The stats under examine stats when the batter has the platoon benefit, throwing out these 66 PAs in Edman’s case.) Listed here are the most important gaps of all time when it comes to remoted slugging share.

There’s Edman in fourth place with a distinction of 106 factors of ISO. Not solely that, however amongst gamers who’re higher from the precise aspect, he’s received the most important hole ever recorded. No switch-hitter in baseball historical past has ever slugged so laborious from the precise aspect whereas slugging so gently from the left aspect. Nonetheless, that’s not even essentially the most fascinating element about this chart.

Edman’s ISO from the left aspect is .123. That works out to a 71 ISO+, and whereas that’s undoubtedly dangerous, it’s nowhere close to the bottom quantity on the desk. His .228 ISO as a righty works out to 137 ISO+. On each the great and dangerous sides of the desk, Edman’s mark is the fourth highest. My level is that Edman’s look on this desk is due extra to his energy as a righty than to his weak point as a lefty. If that didn’t make my level, possibly this can. As soon as once more courtesy of Stathead, listed below are essentially the most highly effective switch-hitters of all time when batting right-handed in opposition to left-handed pitching (min. 500 PA).

There’s Edman tied for second place with Ketel Marte, proper behind Mickey Mantle. Yeah, that Mickey Mantle. I’ll now pause for a second as a way to reassemble your exploded head. He ranks fifth in slugging and fifteenth in OPS. Though he has simply 67 complete dwelling runs, Edman is, by some means, one of the crucial highly effective switch-hitters of all time relating to dealing with left-handed pitching. We don’t must restrict ourselves to switch-hitters both. Since his debut in 2019, Edman’s .228 ISO in opposition to lefties ranks forty second in baseball, proper between Ronald Acuña Jr. and Mike Trout. Yeah, that Ronald Acuña Jr. and that Mike Trout. He ranks thirty fifth when it comes to slugging share in opposition to southpaws, proper between Fernando Tatis Jr. and Willson Contreras.

This complete article is a celebration a enjoyable truth, and I get that in a approach, it’s a little bit of a bummer. Edman has this unimaginable ability that we must always completely have a good time, however as a result of it solely kicks in a few third of the time, hitting nicely from the left aspect is rather more priceless than hitting nicely from the precise aspect. Edman has a 100 profession wRC+, with 686 profession PAs in opposition to lefties and a pair of,003 in opposition to righties. If these numbers have been reversed, he’d have a 115 profession wRC+ and, in all probability, a couple of All-Star appearances below his belt. Nonetheless, what a enjoyable truth! From the precise aspect, Edman actually is among the sport’s respectable energy hitters, and it’s allowed him to carve out an amazing profession for himself. He’s put up a five-win season, and his 17.2 WAR rank fortieth amongst place gamers since 2019. The truth that he doesn’t look the half makes it all of the extra enjoyable.