Over the previous 30 days, the key league chief in place participant WAR and wRC+ can also be tied for the league lead in dwelling runs and runs scored. You won’t have observed as a result of the workforce he performs for, the Athletics, is taking a while off to go discover itself earlier than settling down. The participant in query is just not Nick Kurtz! Haha, I pulled the ol’ switcheroo there, didn’t I?
No, it’s Shea Langeliers.
That’s proper, probably the most harmful hitter in baseball over the previous month is a catcher. Not solely that, a catcher who entered this season with a profession wRC+ of simply 98, who was hitting an uninspiring .226/.285/.424 on the All-Star break. Since then, Langeliers is hitting .398/.419/.857, with as many dwelling runs (12) in 105 second-half plate appearances as he hit in 267 PA within the first half.
A month in the past, some three years, 378 video games, and 1,444 plate appearances into Langeliers’ profession, I assumed we knew who he was. He was a 2.0-WAR participant in 137 video games in 2024, and had hit no less than 20 dwelling runs in each of his earlier full main league seasons. Prime Buster Posey this isn’t; Langeliers is a damaging framer for his profession, and out of 64 catchers with no less than 1,000 defensive innings for the reason that begin of 2022, he’s 53rd in FRV.
And as good as that 20-homer pop is, Langeliers (no less than till this most up-to-date Bastille Day) walked too little and struck out an excessive amount of, leading to a .217 profession common and a .278 OBP.
To be clear, the offensive requirements for catchers are so pitiably low nowadays that Langeliers was nonetheless a very good participant. Anybody who can hit 20 homers a 12 months, and catch properly sufficient that he doesn’t must chase the ball to the backstop 5 occasions a recreation, goes to get to begin within the majors. Within the land of males who hit like they’re blind, the one-eyed man is king, or one thing like that.
So why is Langeliers all of a sudden hitting like Jimmie Foxx?
Nicely, he’s not getting pitched any in a different way, that’s for starters. Langeliers has seen the identical pitch combine, inside a proportion level or two for every pitch kind, on both aspect of the break. Earlier than the break, 50.8% of the pitches he noticed have been within the zone, in comparison with 51.2% after. (All stats are correct via Tuesday’s video games.) Langeliers has seen 344 pitches in his previous 24 video games, which involves about one and a 3rd further strikes prior to now month. “Negligible” hardly does that quantity justice.
Right here’s one thing that’s totally different, which mirrors a bonus Andrew Vaughn has had throughout his renaissance. (Or, if you happen to’ll indulge me, the Renai-Vaughnce.) Within the first half, 85.6% of the pitches Langeliers noticed got here towards righties. Within the second half, that’s all the way down to 71.2%.
I discussed the same discovering in my piece on Vaughn, and with hindsight I remorse not exploring the instrument via which he may’ve encountered these extra favorable matchups. My idea was that the Brewers had largely stacked Vaughn between the left-handed Christian Yelich and the switch-hitting Isaac Collins, making it impractical to hunt Vaughn with a right-handed reliever. If something, a supervisor would need the platoon benefit towards Yelich, the previous NL MVP, giving Vaughn an additional have a look at a left-handed bullpen arm.
Regardless, no such impact exists for Langeliers. Within the first half, on both aspect of an indirect damage that stored him out for many of June, the right-handed Langeliers spent most of his season sandwiched between Tyler Soderstrom and JJ Bleday, each left-handed hitters. Typically, it was an open-faced sandwich, with solely one among Soderstrom or Bleday (or the equally left-handed Kurtz, CJ Alexander, or Lawrence Butler) flanking Langeliers. However solely twice in 63 first-half begins did Langeliers hit between two righties within the order.
Within the first half, 73% of the lineup spots adjoining to Langeliers went to left-handed hitters. Within the second half, Langeliers has normally hit behind Brent Rooker, or led off with Max Schuemann within the nine-hole. So solely 52% of adjoining lineup spots have gone to lefties.
Right here’s a extra probably trigger: In 98 first-half video games, the A’s confronted 18 left-handed starters. That features a run of three straight one-inning openers in an April collection towards the White Sox. Furthermore, six of these 18 lefty begins got here within the 23-game stretch throughout which Langeliers was harm. Against this, the A’s confronted seven left-handed starters of their first 24 video games of the second half.
This season, Langeliers has a platoon break up of greater than 50 factors of wRC+, which is a big quantity. However a binge on lefties isn’t the rationale he’s been the most effective place participant in baseball over the previous month.
Over his profession, Langeliers’ platoon splits are as near at the same time as you’ll discover. And after posting a .287 wOBA towards righties within the first half, Langeliers has teed off over the previous month, to the tune of a .536 wOBA.
So if it’s not the platoon matchup, what’s it?
Nicely, if you happen to see just a few stray drops of blood in your laptop display screen, know that I simply lower myself on Occam’s Razor. Why is a hitter enjoying approach over his head in a span of about 100 plate appearances? As a result of something can occur in a small pattern dimension!
Langeliers’ first-half BABIP was .236; within the second half, it’s .375. Langeliers posted a .304 wOBA and .316 xwOBA within the first half; within the second half, it’s .525 and .376, respectively. Now, BABIP doesn’t embody dwelling runs, and whereas Langeliers’ second-half HR/FB% of 28.6% is certainly excessive, it’s not utterly unheard-of fluky. If it have been a full-season mark, it wouldn’t crack the highest 5 amongst certified hitters.
Based on Baseball Savant, seven of Langeliers’ 12 first-half dwelling runs would’ve been out of all 30 main league parks. That’s true of solely three of his 12 second-half dingers. These three would’ve escaped fewer than a 3rd of main league parks, together with one that will solely have gone out of the stadium through which it was hit. However the identical is true of that first-half pattern: three that will’ve gone out in fewer than 10 parks, with one singleton.
Within the first half, Langeliers hit 24 batted balls (12.4% of his whole balls in play) with an estimated distance of 340 toes or extra. They become 12 dwelling runs, 4 doubles, and eight outs. Within the second half, Langeliers has hit 15 batted balls (17.9% of his whole balls in play) with the identical estimated distance. The end result: 12 dwelling runs, two doubles, and one out. The common first-half Langeliers dwelling run would’ve gone out of 24 parks (23.583, to be exact); the common second-half dwelling run would’ve gone out of 21.
So yeah, Langeliers is getting extra bang for his, properly, bang. However I do really feel like I’m nitpicking right here. Additionally, I’ve been speaking about dwelling runs for thus lengthy I really feel like a tease for not exhibiting you one but. Right here you go:
This ball was a wallscraper, touchdown within the first 5 rows of the seats. It might solely have escaped 18 of the 30 ballparks. And but he crushed that ball 402 toes at 104.8 mph off the bat, to the alternative subject and over the 12-foot-high wall in proper heart at Nationals Park. It wasn’t a cheapie.
As a result of, yeah, it’s a small pattern, and yeah, a variety of it (like, two-thirds if I needed to ballpark it) appears fluky. However Langeliers is certainly crushing the ball now in a approach he wasn’t within the first half, and undoubtedly not earlier than he got here again from his damage.
These of you who know faculty baseball will do not forget that Langeliers performed his faculty ball at Baylor, and went to highschool in Texas. I’ll relate a related (if solely barely) story from the battleship named after Langeliers’ dwelling state. The USS Texas was a part of the armada that supported the D-Day invasion, and per week after the landings, Allied troops had made it far sufficient inland that they have been transferring out of vary of their offshore gun help.
So as to hit a goal that was out of the listed vary of the ship’s major batteries, the captain had a number of compartments on the starboard aspect flooded, inflicting the ship to record to that aspect, thereby elevating her weapons to an angle from which they might hit the designated goal.
The ethical of the story: Typically you’ve obtained to lean again and let it rip.
Langeliers has all the time had nice bat velocity and a remorselessly aggressive strategy, and he’s solely swinging more durable and extra freely for the reason that break. He’s elevated his common swing spend from 72.7 mph within the first half to 74.7 mph within the second half, tilted his assault angle up one diploma, and elevated his preferrred assault angle proportion from 59.1% to 65.4%.
The result’s a six-degree improve in his common launch angle, a lower in his GB/FB ratio from 1.04 to 0.64, and a 4.5-point improve in his pull charge. Langeliers is barely barely making extra contact, however he’s swinging way more steadily, up from 48.6% to 56.4%. Langeliers’ first-half swing charge could be sixty fifth out of 158 certified hitters; his second-half swing charge would put him seventh.
Langeliers’ aggressiveness is coming at the price of the next chase charge and fewer walks, however he’s swinging at (and crushing) every little thing within the zone. Sizzling rattling, I simply discovered who Langeliers’ second half swing charges jogged my memory of:
Shea Langeliers’ Swing Charges
| Participant | O-Swing% | Z-Swing% |
|---|---|---|
| Langeliers First Half | 29.9% | 66.7% |
| Langeliers Second Half | 35.7% | 76.1% |
| Bryce Harper | 35.2% | 76.8% |
Briefly, swinging at every little thing is a reliable technique, if you happen to can hit the ball extremely laborious. This a lot Langeliers has achieved over the previous month. We will see how a lot of it sticks.