I think his chase rate is to be expected being a 21 year old rookie, but everything else is looking fantastic for him being so young. If he keeps improving and gets stronger, by the time he’s 25 that entire page will be look like a murder scene.
A lot of guys have athleticism and talent, but few are good baseball players at such a young age. Jackson is on pace to have a 5+ WAR season which I doubt anyone expected. Hopefully the kid keeps it up because he’s been an X factor while learning a new position on the fly. The sky is the limit for sure.
AJ can scout.
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Chase rate in the 12th percentile while whiff % is in the 85th percentile is hilarious. Dude’s bat to ball skills are incredible
It’s interesting that they have his batting value at a negative – I wouldn’t have guessed that. I checked out the baseball savant page of Jose Altuve, a similarly contact-heavy guy who swings at – and inexplicably hits – just about everything: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/jose-altuve-514888?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb
The two main differences I see:
1. Jose Altuve, while chasing very often, still chases less than Merrill. Thus, he strikes out a little less.
2. Also, Altuve – perhaps also cos he swings less often – has a higher percentage of batted balls with their launch angle in the “sweet spot” (8-32 degree launch angle). Merrill’s percentage, by contrast, is pretty low.
I’m not worried, though. He’s looking very strong here either way. If his OPS goes way down, then it’s probably time to start thinking about how he can make adjustments. For now, though, I’m just happy to see that we’re finally getting some good offense from our farm system.
always curious precisely what the dots represent. where the ball landed? where it was first defended? like the triple down the RF line is confusing unless there was an error involved and the double in the bleachers, was that a ground rule double?