As a prospect in the minors we read and heard the scouting reports and projections for Manny Machado to potentially be one of Major League Baseball’s brightest young stars for years to come. Comparisons were made to Alex Rodriguez, in a good way. However, such greatness from the youngster appeared to be at least several years out on the horizon.
Last year’s 51 games and 191 at-bats after an August call up from Bowie us a glimpse into the future. Defensively, there was smoothness to the way he patrolled the area around third base, a position that isn’t his natural one. At the plate there was the bang with which he started his big league career, registering six hits (including three home runs, a double, and a triple) in his first 16 at-bats, followed by an uptick in batting average and OPS in September to finish with a .262/.294/.445 slash line.
But at season’s end you probably would’ve had to look pretty hard to find someone who saw the leap coming that we’ve witnessed through the first 76 games of 2013 by the young Machado.
Not only is Manny playing a Gold Glove-caliber third base, he’s also hitting at .321/.353/.481 clip in addition to leading the majors in doubles (33) and ranking second in hits (104).
A look at Machado’s hot zones (via ESPN) shows us he has handled pitches extremely well in each area of the strike zone with the exception of middle-up and middle-in. He’s even done a good job on pitches belt-level off the plate inside as well ones centered below the strike zone.
Fan Graphs’ PITCHf/x data tells us Manny is swinging at fewer pitches overall (44.3%) this year than in 2012 (47.9%), but making better contact (82% as opposed to 76% last year). He’s seeing fewer pitches in the strike zone (49.4% compared to 51.5%), but missing them less, with an 87.8% contact rate. Last season it was 83.8%. Outside of the strike zone Machado is swinging at 26.3% of pitches he sees, but connecting with them 68.5% of the time. When Manny has put the ball in play he’s hit it with more authority: 24% of the time he’s made contact it’s resulted in a line drive, up from 13.9% last season.
A look into his splits (via Baseball Reference) and we see Machado has 36 hits with two strikes, 40 when he’s ahead in the count, 38 when the count is even, 26 when he’s behind in the count, and 12 on the first pitch. Manny has 28 hits with two outs and 27 with runners in scoring position. He’s recorded 38 hits by ground ball, 13 by fly ball, 49 line drives, and has 4 bunts. 44 of Machado’s hits have come at Oriole Park at Camden Yards with the other 60 on the road. In Oriole victories Manny has 65, hits as opposed to 39 in team losses.
Courtesy of Brooks Baseball, here’s Manny’s spray chart through June 22.
By location on the field, 36 of Machado’s hits have been pulled, 51 went back up the middle, and 17 have been to the opposite field.
The more you watch Manny Machado play it’s sometimes hard to believe that the third overall pick in the 2010 draft is still just 20 years old and has not yet played 162 major league games (he’s currently at 126). In the field Manny is a natural and at the plate the strides he’s made are ones you wouldn’t necessarily expect from someone his age.
And the scary part for opposing pitchers? He’s only going to get better.
