Yandy Diaz 2023


Yandy Diaz 🇨🇺 (2023) 


Yandy Díaz Fernández ( Sagua la Grande, Cuba, 1991). After a great 2023 season with Tampa Bay, Diaz secured the American League Batting Title with .330 and also won the Silver Slugger as first baseman.

Yandy was one of the first players I analyzed this season, showcasing his batting abilities in the first half of the 2023 season; you can see the post here.

Yandy had his best performance as a professional player, with .330 batting average, .932 OPS, 78 RBIs, 22 home runs, and 173 hits. Additionally, he was the second-best player for Tampa Bay in WAR (Wins Above Replacement) with 5.2.

In this post, we will analyze his offensive performance and compare it with other batters with a high batting average to see where Yandy Diaz excels.

I must clarify that the rankings are based on a combination of both leagues, in order to assess the significance of performance in categories that feature among the best in MLB.

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



Yandy faced 2357 pitches, with Four Seam Fastball (31%), Sinker (20%), Slider (17%), and Changeup (10%) being the pitches he encountered the most this season. 

He made 173 hits, of which 116 were singles, 35 doubles, and 22 home runs.


In singles, he ranked tenth in the entire MLB, with 116 hits. The leaders in this category were: 3-Nico Hoerner - 135, 2- Ronald Acuña - 137, 1- Luis Arraez - 160.

In Batting Average, was the fourth best player with .330, with players like: 3- Freddie Freeman - .331, 2- Ronald Acuña - .337, 1- Luis Arraez - .354.


In the graph below, we can see the location of the hits. 20.3% went to the left field, 58% to the center field, and 21.7% to the right field. We can observe his great dominance of singles in the infield.




One of Yandy's most important characteristics is the exit velocity of his hits, being a player with great power, resulting in 54% of his hits having an exit velocity of 95 mph or more, ranking him 7th among the best in Hard Hit%.

In the chart below, we can see a Radial chart depicting the launch angle and exit velocity of the hits, averaging 6-degree launch angle. These charts illustrate the type of player Yandy is, being a power hitter and producer of singles and doubles.

In fact, he made 75 ground ball hits, ranked in the top 3 in MLB: 3- Xander Bogaerts - 74, 2- Yandy Diaz - 75, 1- Ronald Acuña - 81. 



Here is a compilation of Yandy's plays during the season:






Against right-handed pitchers (RHP), he had a batting average of .322, and against left-handed pitchers (LHP), .355 BA, being effective against both types of pitchers.

In the chart below, we can see more information about the hits. A significant portion of his hits were in the center zone, accounting for 44%, while he was also quite consistent in the lower zone with 32%.


Yandy never faltered in performance throughout the season, batting above .300 in every month, May being the month with the lowest batting average (.300) and August was his best month with .356. He finished the last month with .345 to close the season with .330 and surpass Corey Seager as the American League Batting Champion.

To add more information about the player, we can see in the chart below, Batted Ball Events (BBE), which represents any batted ball that produces a result(This includes outs, hits and errors. Any fair ball is a Batted Ball Event. So, too, are foul balls that result in an out or an error). This helps identify which pitch types the batter excels against and what kind of hits he produces. 

Against Fastballs(he ranked 14th with the best averages against Fastballs. The leaders were(min 200 PA): 3- Jose Altuve - .354,  2- Lars Nootbaar - .357, 1- Shohei Ohtani - .374.):

 239 BBE, .327 BA, 91 hits,  14.4% Strikeout rate, 16.3 Whiff%

 Breaking balls(The leaders were(min 100 PA): 3- Corey Seager - .351, 2- Luis Arraez - .362, 1- Yandy Diaz - .385):

131 BBE, .385 BA, 65 hits, 23.6% Strikeout %, 23.2 Whiff%

 Offspeed balls:

 63 BBE, .221 BA, 17 hits,  16.8% Strikeout rate, 16.2 Whiff%.


At the end of the chart, we can see the launch angle and exit velocity of the Batted Ball Events (BBE). What stands out the most is the "Topped" category (launch angle below 0 degrees), which accounted for 36.4%, combined with his batting strength, resulting in so many singles (116). 

In the Topped category, Yandy ranked among the top 20 players with the highest average. The leaders in this category were: 3- DJ LeMahieu - 42%, 2- Christian Yelich - 42.1 %, 1- Tim Anderson - 47.2%.

And 27.4% were Flare/Burner (Burners are BBE with low launch angle, and Flares are BBE with a high launch angle). You can see more about launch angle and speed here

Finally, with Runners in Scoring Position (RISP): .365 batting average, 1.133 OPS, 35 hits, 55 RBI, and 21.8% strikeout rate.

In conclusion, we can see that Yandy Diaz produces hitting results without a good launch angle but they are still effective and can also surprise with some Barrels(Batted Ball Events with a velocity greater than 98 mph and a launch angle between 26 and 30 degrees)  that can become Home runs.



2- Plate Discipline




To start, I want to show you the pitch distribution, which is divided into two charts for better appreciation.

In each count, we can see in which zone (Upper, Center, Lower) the pitch was located, and which pitch type was most used in each instance.

Here, a reference image of the zones (Upper, Center, Lower), all the zones cover outside the strike zone to be able to have a general view of the pitch distribution




As mentioned earlier, fastballs were Yandy's main challenge, which he also managed very well with a .327 batting average. In the first chart, we can see that in all counts, pitches were thrown to the Lower zone, mainly using fastballs.

In 1-1 and 1-2 counts, there was more variation in the pitch type, with an increased use of breaking balls and offspeed balls.

Yandy got 54 hits against fastballs, with the majority in 0-0, 1-1, and in the center zone. Additionally, against breaking balls, he made 42 hits, with the most in 0-1, 0-2 counts, in the lower zone.




In the second chart, we can see the same trend: a large portion of the pitches were thrown to the lower zone. Yandy excelled in 2-2 counts with 23 hits, with 10 hits against breaking balls, and in 2-1 counts with 15 hits, 9 were against fastballs, with most of them in the center zone.



Now that we have all that pitch distribution information, we can now look at his Batting Average performance.

The chart below shows the batting average in each count. He stood out more on the first pitches (0-0, 0-1, 1-0), being consistent with count management. His weakness was on 1-2 where he averaged .192 and full count with .233.






Yandy had 94 Strikeouts, ranked in the top 25 of players with the fewest strikeouts, the leaders in this category were: 3- Jeff McNeil - 65, 2- Keibert Ruiz - 58, 1-Luis Arraez - 34.

If we talk about Whiff, Yandy ranked number 23 with 18.3%. In Swing and miss within the strike zone, he ranked 29th with 92 swing and misses.

In these plate discipline categories, he was among the top 30 players in the MLB in all of them. One of the few stats in which he didn't excel is Sweet Spot with 30.5%. As mentioned earlier, his batting style often produces ground balls, but with good results.

Overall, Yandy had an exceptional performance, making it his best season in the MLB so far.






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