PIttsburgh Pirates 1B John Jaso is giving opponents reason to re-think their strategy against him
Pittsburgh Pirates 1B John Jaso has one of the most unique batting stances in recent history.
It is that batting stance that practically begs opposing teams to shift against him. Though he sweeps his right leg back into what one might call a “normal” batting stance by the time the barrel comes through the zone, his initial ownership of the box tempts teams to stack the deck against the first base side.
Among all Pittsburgh Pirates hitters with at least 10 plate appearances against what Fangraphs labels as shifts (both traditional shifts (think the SS playing on the first base side) and non-traditional (an extra fielder in a shallow outfield spot)), Jaso has seen the most, and has had success.
[table id=142 /]Jaso has already seen 86 shifts in 2016, 46 more than runner-up Gregory Polanco. Those 86 shifts are just 11 less than he faced in all of 2015. On a pace for the highest number of plate appearances in his career, Jaso will easily eclipse his previous mark. That may be music to the Pittsburgh Pirates’ collective ears, as Jaso is productive against shifts throughout his career with a .318 average against them.
In the past three years, Jaso has seen at least 50 shifts and has hit .246, .292 and .341 (2016 to date) respectively. Though historically his success here has not translated to run production (none of these years were accompanied by a wRC+ (weighted runs created plus) close to the average), his batting average will be more than enough for what the Pirates ask him to do.
Once we take in Jaso’s history of success against the shift, we can now look at how he is beating the shift, which is even more impressive.
[table id=143 /]Jaso’s career batted ball numbers are right around MLB averages for his career, but in 2016 there is a seismic shift in balls hit towards center field. It’s hard to fully quantify the effect that a 9.1 percent increase can bring, but we do find some evidence to explain the increase.
Better Contact Leads to All-Fields Hitting
From 2015 to 2016, Jaso is doing a much better job in making contact from the middle of the plate to the outer-third.
2015
We can see that Jaso had decent contact rates in those areas, but truly excelled only in areas that were conducive to pulled hits. 2016 is a different story altogether.
2016
While these numbers still may even out as the summer months approach, Jaso’s contact rates have improved on pitches that lend themselves by nature of their location to opposite field or center-hit batted balls. In doing so, he has been able to avoid pulling more balls into eager defenders who have shifted over to play the percentages.
While he will never fully shake the label of a pull hitter, Jaso is doing more than enough to keep defenders honest and give managers second thoughts about automatically calling for a shift every time they see him get into that awkward-but-effective stance. It is this professional approach to hitting that has allowed Jaso to avoid prolonged slumps and give the Pittsburgh Pirates even more value on what appears to be one of their finest contracts over the past several years.
Featured Image Credit – Daniel Decker Photography
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