Quickly, if you will, take a guess at Alex Rodriguez‘s worst month this season. Got that? Great. Now, think of what you think his wRC+ and Iso were in that month. Done? Fantastic. Repeat that process for his best month.
If you want me to do it for you, I will. A-Rod’s worst month this season was June, but it wasn’t all that bad. His wRC+ was 109, which isn’t that bad for a player’s worst month. What’s interesting, though, is that he had a .232 Iso in June, the highest he’s had in a month this season. His best month, by wRC+, was May, when he racked up a 128 mark. Ironically enough, his Iso that month was a “meh-tastic 118. Both months featured above-average production, but Rodriguez went about them in different ways, as evidence by those Iso marks.
In May, Rodriguez didn’t display much patience; his walk rate was just 7.8%, his lowest of the three full months he’s played this year (July isn’t over, obviously, but his BB% is just 4.0 so far this month.). However, he was still able to rack up a .383 OBP in May thanks to a very health .314 batting average in the month (.382 BABIP). If we take a look at his spray chart, courtesy of Texas Leaguers, we see that A-Rod definitely used the whole field in May:
While there’s certainly damage done to the left side, there’s a large cluster of balls in short right field, suggesting Alex was spraying the ball there for singles and being productive that way. Now let’s take a look at June:
There’s a lot less to right field, but there’s a lot more pull power, especially over the fence power.
Mike E was nice enough to make this GIF to show us the different swings Rodriguez had in May and June:
In May, we see a higher leg kick and a swing geared towards right. In June, we see a shorter, faster leg kick and a swing that drove the ball. Both of these are encouraging. May, Rodriguez’s best month, showed us that he can still be productive even when he’s not walking much or ripping the ball. June showed us that he can still take a walk (11.8 BB%) and crush the ball. Many have worried about Alex this year, but overall he’s been healthy and productive in one way or another. Maybe we should stop worrying so much.
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One Response to A-Rod’s best and worst months
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TIQ IQ
Interesting post and love the video comparison. I wonder if a ‘park factor’ might be involved in the clips, though? And would the handedness and style of the opposing pitcher (to say nothing of game situation) have an impact? Righty Jason Hammel at Camden Yards is a different proposition than lefty Jon Niese at Citi Field and it would be interesting to compare two swings against similar pitchers, at Yankee Stadium.