NFL
By: Steve Rogers
Luis Arraez wears number two, but he’s batting number one! No, really, the diminutive in size at 5’10” and 175lbs. doesn’t look like Wade Boggs or Tony Gwynn. But you start to look similar when you’re batting avg. is .349 a week before July and good for best in the majors on paper. Arraez is a pesky left-handed contact hitter with a low strikeout rate, a twitchy batter’s box presence, and ridiculously high bat speed. Couple that with his maybe the best eyes in all of baseball and ability to make solid contact and pepper the ball to all fields giving me shades of Ichiro vibes.
Speaking of Ichiro, just last week, Arraez had a chance to chat with Ichiro and found out not only did Ichiro know Arraez but, in fact, is Ichiro’s favorite left-handed hitter currently playing. Coincidently the next day, on June 15th Arraez played in his 300 MLB game and, with min. of 1,000 plate appearances, qualified for the top ten all-time batting avg. With a .320, it is good for eighth all-time. Interestingly enough, Ichiro is number two on this list. In much the same way that Ichiro never hit for power, Arraez currently has four home runs and will likely finish the season with less than ten.
Arraez seems to be reaping the benefits of playing “Small ball.” While all the analytics are all launch angles and exit velocities, he’s doing it by the basics, or should I say bases, by continuously getting on first. Along with lots of singles, he’s also collecting a lot of walks, 28 bases on balls, and one intentional walk. Gives him also the league’s best On-Base Percentage of .426. How has he done this by hammering the hard stuff when it comes to hitting heaters Arraez again comes in at the top spot with a scorching hot avg. of .418. A whopping 30 points ahead of the second-place guy and teammate Carlos Correa.
Now it’s a small sample size as he has only been in the majors for three years and all of them with the Mn Twins, but in that time, he has climbed to number two in franchise history career batting avg. .321 behind only not just the Minnesota Twin’s all-time best hitter but one of BASEBALL’s best hitters ever, Hall of Famer Rod Carew, whose Twins career avg. is .334. Behind Arraez is another Twins legend and Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett at avg. .318. In 4th on this list is a Hall of Famer and the second member of the prestigious 3,000 hit club Paul Molitor whose avg. is .312. In fact, the guy who won three batting titles with the Twins recently, Joe Mauer’s career avg. is only .306
When you explore the advanced analytics, Arraez’s season starts to look unprecedented as he currently has a 160 OPS+. That equates to him being 60% better than the average hitter. In comparison, some of the game’s best power hitters such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at 145 or The Polar Bear Pete Alonzo at 157.
Basically, Arraez is beating baseball by owning first base via the base hit or base-on ball. Is he a bomber? No. Is he a speedster? No. Is he a gold glover? Maybe in the future but for now, no. Yet this might just be the first of many all-star games and maybe batting titles as all he does is continue to evolve into a complete hitter. Without a doubt, he has earned his one-year deal worth 2.125 million this year, and most likely a nice raise come next year.
