Yeah, I don’t know, either.
I didn’t always drink coffee.
Back during the beginning of COVID times, my wife (like everyone else) tried to find ways of occupying ourselves when we couldn’t do the standard things we had been doing. One of the things we did were “adventure walks” where we walked for miles and miles to random locations that we were basically too tired to walk back from. But that’s not exactly part of the story.
When is it ever, really?
I decided I was going to go back and try as many foods and such that I did not like (or think I didn’t like) and give them a try. Mustard is still gross. Pickles ruin literally everything they touch. Coconut still tastes weird and has a weird texture. But coffee … I like coffee now.
I started out, like many others, by saturating it in cream and sugared syrups, but I’ve gotten to point of enough cream to change the texture and some zero sugar syrups (hey, I’m old now). It took me some time and some tinkering, but I got there.
And I wonder if Eli White has, too.
It’s faded because we’re not talking about a lot of plate appearances so far, but Eli White is tearing the cover off the ball for the Atlanta Braves — to the tune of .317/.378/.634 and a wRC+ of 174. Phew.
But come on, we’re talking about 45 plate appearances. Yeah, you’re right. But it is interesting.
For his major-league career, Eli White doesn’t even have a full season of plate appearances – sitting at 493 – and his career line of .202/.276/.333 (yikes) is only good enough for a 70 wRC+ (somehow I thought it would be lower). When he first got a shot in the lineup, we all probably didn’t even notice. Worse, we probably spit on the ground, blamed Jurickson Profar, and dreamed of Ronnie.
But here he is destroying baseballs, so how real might this be?
His BABIP is .367, so he’s not going to have a wRC+ of 174 all season. Not surprising.
He is hitting the ball harder, though. His exit velocities have mostly been in the mid-to-upper 80s, but this season, it’s at 90.1. His max exit velocities have usually been around the 20th percentile, but this season, it’s at the 48th. Again, he’s not going to hit this well all season, but there are some signs of gains.
He hasn’t changed much in his approach, but he has been more aggressive, especially in the zone. But one of the more significant changes is the number of “meatballs” he’s seen this season so far – nearly 14% against the league average of around 7%. So he’s getting more pitches down the middle (my guess is random variation along with pitchers having similar thoughts to us when we see his name in the lineup), but hey, he’s hitting them, which is more than BJ Upton used to be able to say.
White hasn’t exactly changed how he’s hitting them, either. His batted ball profile is pretty similar – not too different in terms of the direction, left or right and up or down.
So you’re telling me that he is hitting the ball a *little* harder, but nothing else has changed except he’s been seeing more middle-middle?
Overall, it doesn’t seem like a ton has changed for Eli. One of the neat things that Baseball Prospectus has come out with recently are renovated player pages, and they do have a set of deserved rates for Eli White to help us with that question.
You know, that’s not bad. His DRC+ is 110, and that’s above-average. It’s certainly better than Jarred Kelenic and company. And it’s enough to let him ride enough to see if he can be one of those surprise seasons that we cherish forever. Because baseball is fun, and sometimes, you just never know.
Now, my favorite flavor of ice cream involves coffee.