Ian Desmond, Colorado Rockies
wRC+ through April 30th: 38
wRC+ through May 1st: 145
Ian Desmond’s tenure with the Rockies had gotten off to a…rocky start (sorry). Between 2017 and 2018, he was worth -1.5 fWAR. Although he hit 22 homers last season, it was accompanied by an 81 wRC+ and 62.0% ground-ball rate.
Despite his rough first month, it was interesting to see that Desmond’s ground-ball rate had improved significantly to 37.9%. It’s gone up since the start of May, but his results have been making up for lost time. What’s noticeable about his season-long performance is a constant rise in hard-hit rate.
This number has gone from 27.1% in ’17 to 34.1% in ’18 prior to his current 41.9% mark. And after posting a line-drive rate of 16.5% during those first two years in Denver, he’s improved it to 24.0% thus far. It’s also helpful that he’s gotten more selective in the strike zone (71.3% to 66.1% swing rate) while improving his contact rate on strikes (81.7% to 84.7%).
Combine that with more line drives and a drastic improvement in hard contact, and it’s not surprising to see Desmond finally have some legitimate success.
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