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 in the course of the Tokyo Collection. If and when the joke is definitely humorous, it’s as a result of Edman doesn’t have the standard look or profile of an influence hitter. That form of incongruity makes an excellent premise each for jokes and for a startlingly excessive proportion of youngsters’s motion pictures. A switch-hitting, 5-foot-9 utility participant who needs to be an influence hitter is roughly as quirky as a rat who needs to be a gourmand chef, a robotic who needs to seek out love, or a snail who needs to be a race automobile driver.

Edman by no means reached double-digit dwelling runs till he bought to the majors, and he has nonetheless by no means hit greater than 13 in a season. Nevertheless, I feel it’s time we modified our inflection. Tommy Edman is an influence hitter, or on the very least, he’s half an influence hitter. Which may come as a shock, even to these of us who’ve been rooting for him (and pondering of him as Cousin Tommy) ever since his debut in 2019.

All three of these dwelling runs are from this yr, and all three had 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 proportion (.514) and sixteenth in remoted slugging proportion (.271). Nevertheless, it goes with out saying {that a} scorching begin like this received’t final eternally. Edman is hitting the ball onerous, however his bat pace remains to be nicely beneath common. He’s succeeding by pulling tons of balls within the air, and whereas I might like to see him maintain onto these features 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 motive, I don’t essentially wish to give attention to this energy surge. I wish to suppose larger.

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 commonplace for switch-hitters to have extra energy from one aspect or the opposite, however that’s an unbelievable hole. I used to be inquisitive about the way it stacked up traditionally, so I ran a couple of Stathead searches, in search of each participant who has batted no less than 500 occasions from each side of the plate. (As a observe, the numbers are barely completely 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 here are the most important gaps of all time by way of remoted slugging proportion.

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 appropriate aspect, he’s bought the most important hole ever recorded. No switch-hitter in baseball historical past has ever slugged so onerous from the appropriate aspect whereas slugging so gently from the left aspect. Nevertheless, that’s not even essentially the most fascinating 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 unhealthy, 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 unhealthy 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 can. As soon as once more courtesy of Stathead, listed below are essentially 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 with the intention to reassemble your exploded head. He ranks fifth in slugging and fifteenth in OPS. Though he has simply 67 whole dwelling runs, Edman is, by some means, one of the vital highly effective switch-hitters of all time in terms of going through left-handed pitching. We don’t must 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 proportion towards southpaws, proper between Fernando Tatis Jr. and Willson Contreras.

This entire article is a celebration a enjoyable reality, and I get that in a approach, it’s a little bit of a bummer. Edman has this unimaginable ability that we must always completely rejoice, however as a result of it solely kicks in a few third of the time, hitting nicely from the left aspect is way more useful than hitting nicely from the appropriate aspect. Edman has a 100 profession wRC+, with 686 profession PAs towards lefties and a pair of,003 towards righties. If these numbers had been reversed, he’d have a 115 profession wRC+ and, in all probability, a couple of All-Star appearances beneath his belt. Nonetheless, what a enjoyable reality! From the appropriate aspect, Edman actually is among the recreation’s authentic energy hitters, and it’s allowed him to carve out an excellent 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.