Ronald Acuña - 2023

 

Ronald Acuña Jr 🇻🇪(2023)

Ronald José Acuña Blanco (La Guaira, Venezuela, December 18, 1997). He is a Venezuelan baseball player who plays for the Atlanta Braves in Major League Baseball (MLB). In the LVBP, he plays for the Tiburones de La Guaira. He made his debut in 2018 with the Braves. 

In this post, we will analyze undoubtedly the most complete and dominant player in MLB in recent years, a player who won the National League MVP thanks to his hitting style, power, stolen bases, and consistency.

Acuña had an incredible season: .337 Batting Average, 1.012 OPS, 106 RBI, 41 Home runs, 217 Hits, and 73 Stolen bases. Additionally, he became the first player to reach the 40-70 mark in MLB; 40 home runs and 70 stolen bases.

Along with Esteury Ruiz(67 stolen bases), they were the players with the most stolen bases in 2023, marking the first time since 2010 that one or more players achieve 65 stolen bases or more in one season.

In this post, we will try to analyze his overall performance, but we will focus on his batting and base running performance.

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 🙌

Data provided by Baseball Savant

1- Hits

Acuña faced 2782 pitches, with the majority being 31% FS Fastballs, 21% Sinkers, 20% Sliders, and 9% Changeups. Acuña showcased versatility, displaying remarkable power, speed, and plate discipline, with pitching being the only skill he didn't exhibit.

Acuña tallied 217 hits, leading the league alongside Freddie Freeman, who also had 211 hits, and Luis Arraez with 203 hits. Among his hits were 137 singles, 35 doubles, 4 triples, and 41 home runs. With this remarkable performance, Acuña ranked among the league's best, securing the second position in singles, trailing behind Luis Arraez with 160 hits, and fifth in home runs. 

The chart below illustrates the hit distribution, with the majority occurring in the infield.

If we focus on stats reflecting his overall contribution, we can see that Acuña led the MLB in OBP with .416 and ranked third in OPS with 1.012. 

Also, when measuring his power, we look at Barrels, where he topped the list with 86, and he also ranked fifth in Hard Hit% (hits with an exit velocity of 95 mph or more) with 55.2%. If that isn't impressive enough, Acuña averaged 94.7 mph on batted balls, leading all MLB players.

 In the chart below, we can see a radial chart depicting the launch angle and exit velocity of his hits. 

As if that weren't enough, Acuña recorded the hardest-hit ball of the season at 121.2 MPH.

Against right-handed pitchers (RHP), he had a batting average of .343, 86 RBI, and against left-handed pitchers (LHP), .315 BA, 20 RBI, being effective against both types of pitchers.

In the chart below, we can see more information about the hits. As you can observe in the heatmap, 35 hits were made in the center zone, and between the center zone (36%) and the lower zone (38%) is where he made the most hits. Additionally, he made very few hits outside the strike zone, with only 15%.

Another important point is that Acuña ranked second in Batting Average with a .337 BA, behind Luis Arraez with a .354 BA.

Acuña, besides having a good batting average, also contributed significantly to his team, with 106 RBI, ranking 8th in the 2023 season. The leader in this category was his teammate Matt Olson with 139 RBI.

With Runners in Scoring Position (RISP), he had a .315 BA, 63 RBI, 8 HR, and only 16 strikeouts, accounting for 12.1% of his at-bats.

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. 

First, let's examine his performance against each Pitch type, to better understand, we'll divide them into three categories (Fastballs, Breaking balls, and Offspeed balls). 

• Against Fastballs (Four-seamer, Sinker, and Cutter), he had the second best Batting average in the MLB, behind Freddie Freeman with a .343 BA. with at least 400 Plate Appearances (PA):

.340 BA, he had 331 BBE, of which 127 were hits(23 HR), 11.7% Strikeout rate, and 14.6% Whiff rate.

• Against Breaking balls (Curveball, Slider, Sweeper, etc), he had the best Batting average in the MLB, with at least 200 Plate Appearances (PA):
  
  

.350 BA, 177 BBE, of which 71 were hits(15 HR), 12.8% Strikeout rate, and 24% Whiff rate.

• Against Offspeed balls (Changeup, Splitter, Forkball, etc), he had 73 PA, but doesn't qualify for a ranking with a significant amount of plate appearances to compare him with other important players. :

.288 BA, 54 BBE, of which 19 were hits, 18.8% Strikeout rate, and 26.6% Whiff rate.

At the end of the chart, we can see the launch angle and exit velocity of the Batted Ball Events (BBE). 

As mentioned before, Acuña's power was impressive. In terms of Batted Ball Events (BBE), he had a 15.4% Barrel rate, placing him in the top 15 with the highest Barrel percentages. Additionally, he had a 34.5% Topped rate, indicating BBE with a launch angle of 0 degrees or less, resulting in 81 ground ball hits for the season, leading in this category. You can find more info about Launch Speed angle here.

Lastly, he also had 98 line drive hits, ranking third alongside Freddie Freeman with 116 and Luis Arraez with 119.

2- Stolen Bases

To measure a base runner's performance, it is divided into several categories: the first is Stolen Bases, followed by Bolts (any run where the Sprint Speed of the runner is at least 30 ft/sec - 32 km/h), and Sprint Speed.

Something very interesting is that the fastest players in this top 5 are Carroll and Witt Jr, but Acuña and Ruiz lead in stolen bases by a large margin; we will see why.

It's interesting that despite all the data Baseball Savant records, we don't have a clear conclusion on how Acuña managed to steal so many bases, despite not being as fast as others in the top 5. 

Esteury Ruiz had similar characteristics, being slightly faster than Acuña and with more Bolts, yet at the same level as Carroll and Witt. In Esteury's case, a determining factor was the distance he took from first base, a considerable distance that allowed him to steal 67 bases. 

In Acuña's case, he wasn't a player who took much distance, yet he still knew when to run, based on the pitch sequence and the type of catcher. It's worth noting that Acuña reached base 226 times (137 singles, 80 walks, and 9 hit by pitch), had 87 SB attempts, and stole 73 bases. In summary, it's about the runner seizing the opportune moment to steal a base and the situation they're in.

There are several interesting facts regarding Acuña's speed. First, he had 87 stolen base attempts, of which 73 were successful steals and 14 were caught stealing. In other words, he had a caught stealing percentage of 16%. 

We can compare this with the top 5 players in stolen bases, such as 

Esteury Ruiz: 80 attempts (67 stolen bases, 13 caught stealing), caught stealing % 16.2%. 

Corbin Carroll: 59 attempts (54 stolen bases, 5 caught stealing), caught stealing percentage of 8.4%. 

Bobby Witt Jr: 64 attempts (49 stolen bases, 15 caught stealing), caught stealing percentage  23.4%. 

CJ Abrams: 53 attempts (47 stolen bases, 4 caught stealing), caught stealing percentage 7.5%

In the chart below, we can see the Top 5 in stolen bases. Acuña led with 73, with 14 caught stealing. The majority of steals were at second base with 59.

The most interesting aspect of Acuña is with that many stolen bases, he must at least be a fast player, but he's not actually as fast as the others in the top 5. In fact, his sprint speed was 28 ft/sec (30.7 km/h), placing him at 201st. This speed is slightly above the MLB average (27 ft/sec). The leaders in Sprint Speed were: 2- Trea Turner - 30.3 ft/sec, 1- Bobby Witt and Elly de la Cruz - 30.5 ft/sec. 

We also have the Bolts, where Acuña had only 18; the leaders by far were Corbin Carroll with 133 and Bobby Witt with 149.

And lastly, we have Competitive Runs, which include all runs ranging from 23 ft/sec (poor) to 30 ft/sec (elite). Acuña had 296, placing him in the top 5 in the MLB. It's worth noting that Sprint Speed, Bolts, and Competitive Runs take into account overall baserunning, not just stolen bases. You can learn more about these stats here.

3- Plate Discipline

Now onto the most important aspect, Acuña was one of the best in Plate Discipline, first, we will look at the pitch distribution in each count.

The zones are divided into three (Upper, Center, and Lower) to have an overview of the pitch location, and there will be two charts to better appreciate each count.

As mentioned earlier, Acuña excelled against Fastballs, receiving more of them at 0-0 and 1-0. It's quite clear that he was rarely pitched to the center zone. Since 36% of hits were in the center zone.

In 0-0 is where he had the most hits with 47 hits, .409 BA.

In 0-2, he had few pitches, as he had a .385 BA and only 14 strikeouts.

Acuña had 80 walks, ranking in the top 20 for most walks in the season, which is why in 3-ball counts he had a .324 BA and .623 OBP. Overall, Acuña had few issues, but where his performance dropped was in two-strike counts, with .227 BA in 1-2 and .241 BA in 2-2.

Finally, a significant portion of his walks came in 3-2 counts with 45.

When it comes to swing and miss, Acuña had a total of 211 swing and miss, ranking in the top 50 with the lowest amount in the MLB, with the majority occurring outside the strike zone at 31.8%, which also placed him among the top 20. 

In Whiff rate, he ranked in the top 30 with 18.7%. We can say that Acuña was very difficult to strike out, and it was easier for him to hit the ball into play or foul it off until reaching two strikes, as evidenced by his 483 fouls and 562 BBE in the 2023 season, with fouls predominantly against fastballs and situations leading to two-strike counts.

In the chart below, we can see his batting average in each count. As mentioned earlier, in 1-2 and 2-2 counts, he struggled the most to get hits, but in the rest, we can see that he was dominant. Considering that a significant portion of the pitches were in the lower zone, it's where he connected the most hits, accounting for 38% of the total.

Acuña had 84 strikeouts, a very low amount, ranking 9th with the fewest strikeouts in the season, representing only 11.4% of his plate appearances. In this category, he ranked 6th in the MLB. 

Now, in the chart below, we see Acuña's strikes (called strikes and swinging strikes). On the left side, we can see the percentage of each pitch type, with a higher percentage of called strikes in fastballs and breaking balls. Additionally, the strikes were almost equal in percentage by zones. 

A very common pattern that I have seen so far in players with high batting averages is that the strikes are mostly directed to the areas furthest from where the batter is positioned (the red boxes on the heatmap).