Manny Machado Is Doing It All for the San Diego Padres

Consolation With The Curve

Manny Machado is demolishing breaking balls and off-speed stuff this season. His .354 batting common in opposition to breaking balls is a career-high and up .080 from final 12 months’s .274 mark. He has been even higher in opposition to off-speed pitches, hitting an excellent .400. That quantity can also be a career-high and up over .100 factors from .264 final 12 months.

One of many major causes that’s taking place is as a result of Machado is being extra selective with these sorts of pitches. His Whiff% on breaking balls is down over six factors from 2021 to a career-low 26.9%. He’s additionally swinging-and-missing at a career-low fee in opposition to off-speed pitches, down practically 4% from final 12 months to 21.9%.

Being extra selective has unlocked never-before-seen energy for Machado in opposition to off-speed stuff. He’s slugging an astronomical .760 in opposition to off-speed, which is greater than .200 factors above that very same quantity from 2021. That has helped put collectively one other career-high, this time in general slugging share at .590.

The wonderful factor about what Machado is doing is he isn’t even actually barreling up the baseball. He’s within the fortieth percentile in Barrel% thus far this 12 months, by far a career-low, however is within the 93rd percentile in Exhausting Hit%. He’s nonetheless managing to hit the ball arduous even when he doesn’t get the barrel on it and is slugging like he by no means has earlier than.

And it isn’t like Machado was not an elite energy hitter already. He’s one shy of 260 profession homers and his .491 profession SLG% is sixteenth amongst energetic gamers with at the very least 4000 PAs. He is an elite energy hitter that’s solely turning into higher with time as he enters his peak at 29. That could be a scary thought for Main-League pitchers.

Shouldering The Load

When Fernando Tatis Jr. went down for the primary few months of the season following a motorbike accident, it was simple to query how the Padres would fare with out him. Because of Manny Machado, they’ve been greater than alright.