The switch-hitting slugger has emerged as baseball\u2019s best catcher this season while putting up his historic numbers for his position. He\u2019s currently on pace for 60 home runs, which would break the MLB record for catchers and switch-hitters, and the Mariners\u2019 franchise record.<\/p>\n
Mike Petriello<\/a> recently dug into the season Raleigh is having in an article on MLB.com<\/a>. Petriello joined Seattle Sports\u2019 Wyman and Bob<\/a> on Monday to discuss what\u2019s leading to Raleigh\u2019s success.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Negating the T-Mobile Park effect<\/p>\n Petriello pointed to what Raleigh has done at home this season as something that stood out to him. Raleigh has been almost as productive at T-Mobile Park \u2013 by far the toughest place to hit in the league<\/a> \u2013 as he has been on the road.<\/p>\n Raleigh has a .962 OPS with six doubles and 13 home runs in 150 plate appearances at his home park. He has a 1.108 OPS with six doubles and 13 home runs in 152 plate appearances on the road.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a big change from past years. Raleigh had a .668 OPS with 34 home runs in 860 plate appearances at home entering the year, and a .809 OPS with 59 home runs in 900 plate appearances on the road.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what\u2019s happening here is he\u2019s tried to optimize what he does with his swing,\u201d Petriello said. \u201cHe has basically the highest or second-highest rate of pulled balls in the air that we\u2019ve seen in the pitch tracking era, going back to 2008, and that to some extent is ballpark-proof because that\u2019s going to work no matter where you are.\u201d<\/p>\n Petriello said the risk about this type of approach is that it can cause a player\u2019s strikeout rate to inflate.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the most interesting thing is he\u2019s got a lower strikeout rate at home,\u201d Petriello said. \u201cThat\u2019s weird because that\u2019s what we talked about last year, T-Mobile inflates strikeouts<\/a>,\u00a0and that\u2019s not happening for him this year. And to be honest, I don\u2019t have a good answer as to why. But the fact that he\u2019s doing that, I would love to know why, because I bet all the other Mariners hitters would also love to know why.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The reasoning behind pulling flyballs<\/p>\n Petriello said selling out on pulling flyballs isn\u2019t an approach for everybody, but Raleigh\u2019s power and swing give him a good profile to do so. Petriello explained that there are two major factors behind the reasoning to the approach.<\/p>\n \u201cAnybody who\u2019s watched baseball knows the obvious reason, which is that shorter down the lines than it is to the power alleys. That\u2019s clear,\u201d he said. \u201cBut with a lot of this new data we have, we\u2019ve been able to show that the speed of your bat is higher when you\u2019re pulling the ball, which I think makes sense.<\/p>\n \u201c(There\u2019s) more time for the bat to move if it gets out ahead, as opposed to if you\u2019re trying to get (the ball) deep in the zone. And that could add four miles an hour to your swing if you\u2019re pulling the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n Hear the full conversation at this link<\/a> or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2-7 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.\u00a0<\/p>\n More on the Seattle Mariners<\/p>\n \u2022 Emerson Hancock \u2018flat-out huge\u2019 for banged-up Mariners rotation<\/a>
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\u2022\u00a02025 may be the new career year for Mariners\u2019 J.P. Crawford<\/a>
\u2022\u00a0Seattle Mariners Observations: What stood out from sweep of Guardians<\/a><\/p>\n
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