Heliot Ramos Has a Plan

Nobody deserves a .414 BABIP. That’s simply not how issues work. Hit the ball as exhausting as you need, spray line drives to all fields with reckless abandon, secretly slather grease in your opponents’ gloves – none of these issues can hold your batting common on balls in play at such a lofty degree. It’s a superb marker of small samples. If somebody is BABIP’ing .414, it’s too early to consider their stats.

Let’s use Heliot Ramos for example. Ramos is on hearth thus far this yr. He’s hitting a ridiculous .319/.394/.560, and doing it whereas hanging out almost 30% of the time. It doesn’t make sense. Nobody hits .300 whereas hanging out that usually. Nobody runs a .400 OBP with a strikeout fee that top until they’re strolling like Barry Bonds. Ramos is doing neither.

I can hold itemizing the issues that don’t make sense right here. Ramos isn’t precisely a launch-and-crush sort of man – he’s hitting 1.7 grounders per fly ball, with the league common round 1.4. Nevertheless it’s figuring out for him – he’s batting a scalding .367 on these grounders with a .411 slugging share. That’s the Eleventh-best mark (minimal 40 grounders) in baseball for common, and the fifteenth greatest for slugging share.

There’s not loads of talent to that, to be fairly trustworthy. Ramos hits his grounders exhausting, however not uniquely so. He chops them straight down; amongst high-BA grounder hitters, solely Bobby Witt Jr. has a extra destructive common launch angle, and he’s operating a excessive batting common on grounders as a result of he’s the quickest participant in baseball, not due to something particular concerning the grounders.

Usually, that is the place I’d let you know that you need to mood your enthusiasm for Ramos. Sure, he’s placing up a 172 wRC+. Sure, he’s been probably the most helpful hitter on the Giants thus far this yr. Sure, he’s thirteenth in WAR amongst all main league outfielders. However he’s doing it in a bizarre manner, so we shouldn’t consider it… proper?

To some extent, certain. Nobody retains hitting like this. It’s simply gravity. However Ramos is doing quite a lot of issues extremely properly, and in these enlightened days, we don’t need to throw somebody’s early efficiency out simply because it comes with somewhat little bit of unsustainable luck. So let’s dive in, lets? The Giants would possibly simply have discovered the outfielder they’ve been trying to find fruitlessly for years.

The identical manner a very powerful meal of the day is breakfast, a very powerful pitch to excel towards is the primary. Each single plate look has one, and what occurs there has loads to say about the remainder of the at-bat. There’s nobody right first-pitch strategy, however doing properly on it’s essential. Whether or not you’re searching low-cost fastballs or attempting to keep away from falling behind within the depend, succeeding on 0-0 units up every part else.

Ramos will get pitched like an unknown with energy, which is to say that pitchers strategy him very similar to a median main leaguer. He sees strikes on simply over half of his first pitches. Most of these strikes are fastballs. He swings at them about as a lot as everybody else. None of that is hanging, and that in itself is an efficient signal. Once you’re evaluating somebody with large uncooked energy and big minor league strikeout totals, there’s all the time an opportunity that they will’t adapt to main league pitching. That’s clearly not the case right here.

A method you may get forward is by avoiding unhealthy swings. Ramos does that – he’s swinging at solely 11% of pitches exterior the zone on first pitches, higher than league common. The opposite technique to get forward is healthier, although: smashing the dwelling daylights out of a weak 0-0 providing. I’d fairly be again within the dugout celebrating with my associates than forward 1-0 within the depend any day.

For lots of hitters, which means searching fastballs. Ramos is not any slouch at that, however his actual standout talent is attacking pitchers who come at him backwards. “Pitching backwards” is simply jargon for recognizing secondary pitches for strikes early within the depend. It’s a intelligent counter to hitters who’re sitting on fastballs early. They see spin and lay off, the pitch is within the strike zone, and the pitcher will get all the advantages of an in-zone fastball with not one of the potential for harm.

That’s the idea, anyway. Up to now, it hasn’t labored out for Ramos’ opponents. He’s within the high 20% of the league for swing fee when pitchers give him hittable secondaries to start out at-bats. For comparability, he’s within the backside third for swing fee on in-zone fastballs in the identical scenario. Most hitters swing extra ceaselessly at fastballs than breaking balls, however not Ramos. And he isn’t taking defensive swings, both. He takes full rips; he’s one of many 20 hardest swingers on these cookie breaking balls. He goes up there with unhealthy intentions, in different phrases. In the event you attempt to float one thing over the plate, he’s going to attempt to destroy it.

To say it’s working can be an understatement. No different hitter within the majors has mixed Ramos’ swing frequency together with his harm fee. Nobody who swings as usually swings as exhausting, and just about nobody does as a lot harm. He’s fourth within the majors in run worth added by attacking these get-me-over first pitches, with half the at-bats of the three guys in entrance of him. On a fee foundation, Ramos attacking a first-pitch breaking ball creates top-of-the-line anticipated outcomes within the recreation.

I believe that pitchers may need seen. On June 3, he despatched a Ryne Nelson slider 420 toes to proper heart. On June 8, Andrew Heaney looped one in there and received the identical message:

Since that pitch, Ramos has seen two breaking balls within the strike zone to start out at-bats. He swung at certainly one of them and tattooed it 98 mph, although straight into the bottom. In the event you give him a hittable breaking ball, he’ll do his utmost to destroy it. Pitchers have reacted fairly fairly, by excising that pitch from their arsenals towards him.

This turns right into a math train. Pitchers aren’t attempting to get a few of their first strikes with massive looping curves or middle-middle sliders towards Ramos the identical manner they do towards others. However they aren’t changing these breaking balls one for one with lifeless pink fastballs. They’re attempting to entice him to chase breaking balls a few of the time, or elevating fastballs, or simply beginning him off with a changeup or splitter if he has the platoon benefit. Accordingly, he’s getting forward within the depend extra ceaselessly:

That’s an enormous a part of Ramos’ current emergence. Broadly talking, he belongs to an archetype of hitter that you just’ve encountered earlier than: the high-slug/low-contact masher. Greater than that, he’s within the “good however not overwhelming plate self-discipline” group. Possibly I’m being charitable – scouts usually disliked his plate self-discipline as a prospect – however in 2024 motion, he’s not less than satisfactory in that class.

When you could have an honest sense of the strike zone however wrestle with contact, getting behind within the depend is the worst factor that would occur. You possibly can image Joey Gallo for those who’d like, or Aaron Judge for those who’re in search of a high-end model. If a hitter has top-shelf energy and acceptable pitch recognition, counts the place they begin forward 1-0 are inclined to go fairly properly. Pitchers need to enterprise into the strike zone a number of occasions to keep away from a stroll, and also you by no means know when a type of pitches will get despatched to the bleachers.

Flip the script to 0-1, and issues go very otherwise. Hitters need to swing extra willingly after falling behind within the depend, as a result of the price of a taken strike rises. Pitchers go away the strike zone with secondary pitches extra ceaselessly. Generally, hitters with common self-discipline get again into the depend by taking just a few robust pitches. With nice regularity, nevertheless, they swing at a type of pitches or take a strike, after which the bind solely tightens with two strikes.

Choose’s wOBA is 1.45 occasions increased after he will get forward 1-0 in comparison with when he falls behind 0-1. Gallo’s is 1.54 occasions increased. Pete Alonso? His is 1.42 occasions increased. The league solely improves by an element of 1.32. There are two methods of taking a look at it, each of which equate to the identical factor: Both these are the sorts of hitters who enhance most once they get forward, or they’re the sort that’s harm probably the most once they’re behind.

To be clear, you may’t see these sorts of splits in just a few video games, or perhaps a season. Depend-based splits are noisy. I’m evaluating Ramos to these power-over-contact hitters on course of, not outcomes. However why wouldn’t his splits appear to be these guys’? When he hits the ball, it goes a mile. He’s close to the highest of the league in a large assortment of power-on-contact stats: barrel fee, hard-hit fee, EV50 (the exit velocity of the highest half of his batted balls), xwOBACON, no matter floats your boat. He’s notably adept at punishing weak fastballs, which solely is sensible: In the event you do the exhausting work of getting forward within the depend, you need to take most benefit by hitting the simple ones.

In the event you’re in search of one motive Heliot Ramos is taking part in properly this yr, it’s the BABIP. In the event you’re in search of extra causes, although, you’ll discover them. He’s smashing the ball and dealing his manner forward in counts by bullying pitchers who attempt to pull a simple one over on him early within the depend. He’s incomes his luck – not less than partly. If he’s going to be an above-average main league hitter, it will likely be on the again of this actual strategy. For a man who appeared to have misplaced prospect momentum years in the past, it’s a spectacular restoration.