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 awesome premise each for jokes and for a startlingly excessive proportion of kids’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 search out love, or a snail who desires to be a race automobile driver.

Edman by no means reached double-digit residence runs till he bought to the majors, and he has nonetheless by no means hit greater than 13 in a season. Nevertheless, I believe 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 residence 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). Nevertheless, it goes with out saying {that a} scorching begin like this received’t final ceaselessly. Edman is hitting the ball exhausting, however his bat pace remains to be properly beneath common. He’s succeeding by pulling tons of balls within the air, and whereas I might like to see him maintain onto these beneficial properties 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 concentrate on this energy surge. I wish to suppose greater.

Let’s begin with Edman’s bat pace. As I discussed, he’s presently netting out within the twentieth percentile, however the splits are what first caught my eye. As a lefty, Edman’s 68.4 mph bat pace 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 beneath 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 more likely 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 common 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 number of Stathead searches, in search of each participant who has batted not less than 500 occasions from either side of the plate. (As a word, 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 beneath evaluate stats when the batter has the platoon benefit, throwing out these 66 PAs in Edman’s case.) Listed below are the most important gaps of all time by way of 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 suitable aspect, he’s bought the most important hole ever recorded. No switch-hitter in baseball historical past has ever slugged so exhausting from the suitable aspect whereas slugging so gently from the left aspect. Nevertheless, that’s not even probably the most attention-grabbing element about this chart.

Edman’s ISO from the left aspect is .123. That works out to a 71 ISO+, and whereas that’s positively 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 spot as a lefty. If that didn’t make my level, perhaps this may. As soon as once more courtesy of Stathead, listed below are probably the most highly effective switch-hitters of all time when batting right-handed towards 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 so as to reassemble your exploded head. He ranks fifth in slugging and fifteenth in OPS. Though he has simply 67 complete residence runs, Edman is, in some way, one of the crucial highly effective switch-hitters of all time with regards to dealing with left-handed pitching. We don’t have to restrict ourselves to switch-hitters both. Since his debut in 2019, Edman’s .228 ISO towards 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 by way of slugging share towards southpaws, proper between Fernando Tatis Jr. and Willson Contreras.

This complete article is a celebration a enjoyable truth, and I get that in a means, it’s a little bit of a bummer. Edman has this unbelievable ability that we must always completely have fun, however as a result of it solely kicks in a couple of third of the time, hitting properly from the left aspect is far more beneficial than hitting properly from the suitable aspect. Edman has a 100 profession wRC+, with 686 profession PAs towards lefties and a pair of,003 towards righties. If these numbers have been reversed, he’d have a 115 profession wRC+ and, most likely, a number of All-Star appearances beneath his belt. Nonetheless, what a enjoyable truth! From the suitable aspect, Edman actually is without doubt one of the recreation’s authentic energy hitters, and it’s allowed him to carve out an awesome 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.