Thursday, May 23, 2024

David Fry's first two seasons in Cleveland are statistically identical, except for one big difference.

 David Fry's 2 years as a Cleveland Guardian.

 

What is thoroughly statistically fascinating about comparing David Fry's 2023 statistics to 2024 is how virtually identical the plate appearances, stolen bases, doubles, home runs and RBI's are, yet the overall stats show a remarkable improvement that 5 extra singles are not enough to increase OPS by .333. 

The reason the similarity between 2023 to 2024 is so fascinating is when one looks at batting average, OBP, Slugging, and OPS, how radically improved David Fry's 2024 year is from 2023 (and 2023 was solid for a first year player who never played regularly). What is the missing statistical ingredient?

The missing ingredient is a remarkable improvement in walks to strikeouts ratio. In 2023, Fry had 8 walks and 30 strikeouts. In 2024, Fry has 19 walks and 22 strikeouts. When multiplied by a factor of five to equal a 550 at bat season, this translates into a gain of 50 walks.

Never have I viewed a stat comparison example that clearly and concisely shows how an improvement in the walks vs strikeouts category while every other statistic is basically identical (except for the 5 extra singles in 2024); can produce such a lopsided offensive statistical improvement. 

Simply reducing 30 strikeouts to 22 strikeouts while increasing 8 walks to 18 walks in barely over 100 at bats literally creates a .333 increase in OPS, enough to raise a batter's statistics anywhere from 50% to 80% when compared to all Major League Batters, and all it took was increasing one's walk total by 50 over 550 at bats.

 

 

Los Angeles Emmy winning Producer Alessandro Machi combines his editing, camera and observational skills to provide unique insights into the World of Sports.

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