![]() ![]() ![]() Just as he returned from injury Wednesday night, Harrison Bader had to leave the game after a collision. "He can’t get over that final hump," manager Aaron Boone said of Rodon. Carlos Rodon, who has yet to make an appearance this season because of a forearm strain and a back problem, had a setback in his latest throwing session. ekcM92cDuR- Daily Baseball May 4, 2023Īaron Judge is on the injured list with a hip strain. Wander Franco would like to introduce you to the defensive bat flip, the "ball flip". When you're that skilled, you can get away with this: They're both in the top five in FanGraphs WAR this season. He joins Acuna as the two most talented 25-and-under position players in the game. Always in possession of elite hand-eye coordination and hit tool, he's increased his average exit velocity and raised his average launch angle this year. Franco is on pace to join that group, too. Only five 22-year-old and younger shortstops have hit 25 home runs and batted at least. (He pulled off the feat as a 20-year-old in 1996 and a 22-year-old in 1998). How many shortstops age 22 or younger have hit 30 or more home runs in a season? One: Alex Rodriguez. This year he's off to another tremendous start, on pace for a 30-30 season at age 22. 313 with four home runs last April before leg and wrist injuries derailed his season. He might have broken out last season had he not suffered injury setbacks. The older kid he grew up playing with down the street? Cleveland star Jose Ramirez. Part of the Tampa Bay shortstop's unusual talent level can be explained by environment: His hometown, Bani, Dominican Republic, has produced more major leaguers, per capita, than anywhere else in the world. We profiled the uber-talented Wander Franco last spring to understand how his precocious skillset was born. If he does, he might just land his first MVP award. "Hopefully one day I will be able to get 40-40, but my real goal is to stay healthy," Acuna said. Acuna finished with 41 home runs and 37 steals in 2019. There are only four members of the 40-40 club in MLB history. He's been caught only twice.įanGraphs projects him to finish with a 31-homer, 48-steal season, and 7.2 WAR. There were also some questions about how much he'd run, but he leads the majors with 15 steals. "When hitters start to compensate with their upper body, they lose the bat speed, things flatten out, or you get steep, you get long." Matthew Grimes Jr. And it was his right knee, so he didn't have that explosive backside that he's had that made him Ronald Acuna. ![]() "Last year, we were trying to make adjustments with his swing … but his power, his hand speed, comes from his lower half. "(This spring) his swing looks like it did before," Seitzer said. "Just being able to practice, and train at 100%, without any restrictions, was (important)."īraves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer said that without Acuna having his lower body at 100%, it sapped his power last season. "I'd say the only difference is last year I had to battle with some pain in the knee … it comes with recovering from that type of injury," Acuna told theScore via an interpreter late this spring. And at 25, Acuna might still have another level to reach. His MVP-level form is a reminder that players are not often at 100% when they return from a serious injury. Acuna's 4.0-mph improvement ranks as the 11th-greatest jump among hitters with at least 80 plate appearances this season. This year, he is enjoying the greatest average exit velocity of his career (95.5 mph), which ranks second in baseball, trailing only the Blue Jays' Matt Chapman. There was also a decline in his fly-ball rate. Last year his swing flattened, he had less power, resulting in a 2-mph decline in average exit velocity. His skills are looking more like they did before the knee injury, with the added gain of cutting his strikeout rate by nine percentage points. Ronald Acuna hits it into the third deck. Only Pete Alonso, Yoenis Cespedes, and Aaron Judge have also reached that rarified real estate. On Monday, he launched a towering home run into the third deck at Citi Field, a place where very few baseballs have landed. ![]()
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