Luis Arraez (2023)

 

Luis Arráez 🇻🇪 (2023)

Luis Sangel Arráez (San Felipe, Venezuela, April 9, 1997), has been drawing attention with his amazing hitting ability, since his MLB debut in 2019, he has not stopped doing great things, leaving his mark at a young age with his style to dominate the game. It came as no surprise that he became the 2022 American League batting champion with the Minnesota Twins, boasting an impressive .316 batting average.

For the 2023 season, Arráez is fighting to achieve a historic milestone, reaching .400 AVG, the last to achieve it was Ted Williams in 1941 (.406 AVG). Although it is one of the most difficult milestones to overcome, Luis Arráez is fighting to be one of the few players to become batting champion in the American League and National League.

During this first part of the season, in 86 games he has averaged .383 AVG, 126 hits, and 42 RBIs, also being the Top 1 in batting average, most hits and best average on base (.434 OBP) in the MLB.

One of his greatest virtues is his plate discipline, with an incredible ability to read pitches. He can make solid contact both inside and outside the strike zone, with incredible speed, he can achieve the desired outcome with his hits. Very few players in the current times can be compared to Luis Arraez. Although he may not have the power of players like Aaron Judge or Mike Trout, he is an iconic player who never gives up easily. He is a headache for pitchers, and many would love to have him on their team.

This analysis covers in detail his performance as a hitter before the All-star game 2023 break, his pros and cons. If you have any questions regarding the types of pitches (Fastball, Changeup, etc.), here is all the necessary information

Enjoy it 🙌

The data provided is from Baseball Savant

1- Hits

With 126 hits, Luis Arráez is a hitter who knows how to make contact all over the field. As shown in the chart below, we have the percentage of hits for each type of pitch thrown at him. The Four-seam Fastball had the highest percentage with 33.60%, followed by Changeup and Slider, each accounting for 15.20% of his total hits.

A significant portion of his hits were made in the central zone. Particularly noteworthy is his offensive power outside the strike zone, with 25.40% of hits connected.

This indicates Arráez’s difficulty to strike out, with his only weak point being the upper left corner of the strike zone where he was only successful in connecting 2 hits.

Before looking at the graphs, I recommend watching this video to see his batting style and speed at the plate. Additionally, it showcases the first cycle (hitting a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game) in Miami Marlins history.

Now, a graphic that reflects the location of all his hits, which shows how unpredictable Luis Arráez is to place his hits. It showcases that power is not essential for making solid contact and creating opportunities.

The hits are distributed in this way: 22.1% in the left side, 55.8% in the center and 22.1% in the right side of the field.

In the chart above, it displays the hits made with each type of pitch he received. There were 103 singles, with the majority being made with Four-seam Fastball. However, a significant portion of his singles came from Changeup, Slider, and Sinker pitches. This reflects his proficiency in handling fastballs, breaking balls, and changeups.

To complement his offensive power, in the chart below, I present the same graph but with the type of hit (launch angle and speed).

Arraez excels in making flares and burners, which are hits with low trajectory and burners being hits with low trajectory and high exit velocity. His ability to consistently make these types of hits is evident, as there are only a few instances of poor quality or poorly connected hits in his performance.

to finish this part, the graph above shows his hits per count, which very rarely reaches 3-2, and almost all his hits are made in the first pitches with Fastballs, although the pitchers use other types of pitches to try to strike him out, Arraez has good numbers in 2-strike counts.

2- Plate Discipline

In this part of the analysis, his discipline at the plate is very important to showcase his talents. He has only struck out 19 times, which accounts for just 5.3% of his 362 at-bats. This is an impressively low number of strikeouts, indicating his strong ability to make contact with the ball.

Pitchers have discovered a slight weakness in the upper left area of the strike zone, where he has managed to get 38 strikes (called strikes and missed swings), out of which 16 have been Four-seam Fastballs, with an average velocity of those pitches being 93.3 mph.

In the graph below, we can see that a significant portion of his strikes occur on 0-0 counts. Additionally, he doesn’t accumulate more than 20 strikes on two-strike counts, which also reflects his limited presence on 2-2 and 3-2 counts.

As a batter who prefers to establish dominance, the pitcher knows that the initial pitches need to be extremely precise and that Arraez is unlikely to make solid contact with the ball (which occurs very rarely).

One of the few pitches he doesn’t dominate are breaking balls, although he can still connect hits (30 hits so far), it is one of the pitches with the lowest probability (8-15%).

In this chart below, we can see that the difference between successful hits and outs is very small, with 40.98% of successful hits. The most predominant types of hits for Arraez are Flare/Burners, accounting for 29.18% of the total successful hits.

Additionally, it demonstrates that when Arraez chooses to make contact with the ball, there is a 60% probability of being out and a 40% probability of a successful hit, considering his great accuracy (as shown by the flare/burner stat). (launch angle and speed link and Barrel)

Now that we have all this information about Luis Arraez, I also want to show you his advanced stats, where he is an undisputed leader in several categories. It serves to complement the entire analysis I have conducted and reaffirm that Arraez possesses incredible talent.

Having such low averages in both stats confirms that he is the best at what he does. There is a very low probability of him striking out, and a very low likelihood of him missing his swings (Whiff %), making him the only player in MLB with both averages below 8%.

Furthermore, he is the top-ranked player in making contact both inside and outside the strike zone, reflecting his ability to make contact with pitches regardless of their location and turn them into hits into play.

And it's not just a recent accomplishment, he also achieved it last year (here you can check another post where I discuss his last two seasons).

3- Ending

To conclude, I must admit that upon reviewing his numbers, I have been impressed by his batting ability. If he were to finish the season with a .400 average, it would be a historic milestone and further prove that Arraez is (and continues to be) one of the best in MLB. It is a challenging feat to accomplish, but not impossible, has everything going in his favor, and at this pace, he can achieve it.

Here is two videos showcasing what I consider to be his best moments of 2023 so far. And by watching these videos, you will be able to see his quickness in making contact with the ball, as well as his ability to make adjustments depending on where he is pitched to.

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