Easily Consumed Nerd Data from George Springer’s Debut

Deadly accurate demographic information for the present site reveals that nearly all FanGraphs readers are either (a) busy executives or (b) busy executives on the go — in either case, one finds, the sort of people who can’t spend the day in explanation.

With a view to serving that particular demographic, the author presents the following — i.e. a small collection of numbered facts regarding celebrated Houston prospect George Springer’s debut, all of them (i.e. all the facts) of the sort which might appeal to those with a soft spot for the scientific method.

1. Over six plate appearances in an 11-inning game, Springer walked once, struck out twice, and recorded an infield hit — producing a single-game .263 wOBA (box).

2. He also recorded a caught stealing in the fifth inning — decidedly not from a lack of speed, but from a lack of recognition of Jeremy Guthrie’s pick-off move, as exhibited by the following GIF.

3. Springer was remarkably disciplined. Depending on the source, he faced either 13 or 15 or 16 pitches out of the zone. Regardless of the source, he offered at only two of those pitches — both Aaron Crow sliders below the strike zone in the seventh inning. For reference: the lowest O-Swing rate produced by a qualified batter between 2011 and -13 was 17.4%, a mark shared by Bobby Abreu (in 2011) and Marco Scutaro (in 2013). At its worst, Springer’s single-game O-Swing rate was ca. 15% — i.e. better than either Abreu’s or Scutaro’s league-leading single-season marks.

Here’s probably the most difficult pitch against which Springer didn’t offer, a two-strike slider from the very difficult Greg Holland in the 11th inning:

4. In this one-game sample, Springer swung and miss at a rate on par with the baseball’s laggards by that measure. Of the 27 pitches he faced, Springer swing and missed at four (14.8%) — a rate which would place him 416th among 428 qualified batter-seasons between 2011 and -13, tied with last year’s version of Alfonso Soriano.

5. A hastily performed regression of qualified player-seasons from 2011 to -13 reveals that a batter with Springer’s O-Swing and swinging-strike rates would produce walk and strikeout rates of 13.6% and 26.7%, respectively. Here’s a list of 13 players (minimum 300 PA) who’ve produced similar walk and strikeout rates to that over the last three seasons. Note that HR550 and Off550 denote home runs and weighted offensive runs per 550 plate appearances.

Name	Season	PA	HR550	BB%	K%	wRC+	Off550
Curtis Granderson	2011	691	33	12.3%	24.5%	146	34.6
Giancarlo Stanton	2013	504	26	14.7%	27.8%	135	21.2
Dexter Fowler	2012	530	13	12.8%	24.2%	122	19.2
Jim Thome	2011	324	25	14.2%	28.4%	130	14.1
Mike Napoli	2012	417	32	13.4%	30.0%	115	9.5
Lucas Duda	2013	384	21	14.3%	26.6%	120	9.3
Scott Sizemore	2011	429	14	12.4%	26.1%	109	5.1
Dan Uggla	2012	630	17	14.9%	26.7%	104	4.8
Mark Reynolds	2012	538	24	13.6%	29.6%	108	3.3
Jonny Gomes	2011	372	21	12.9%	28.2%	98	1.5
Josh Willingham	2013	471	16	14.0%	27.2%	102	-3.2
Carlos Pena	2013	328	13	13.1%	28.0%	87	-11.1
John Buck	2012	398	17	12.3%	25.9%	74	-18.5
Average	—	—	21	13.5%	27.2%	112	6.9

6. Not unlike a character from a dystopian Anthony Burgess novel, Springer’s swing tends toward the ultra-violent.

Regard, from the third inning:

And regard again, except in slower motion:

7. At full speed on three separate ground balls, Springer recorded home-to-first times of 4.28 (1st inning), 4.14 (3nd inning), and 4.12 (9th inning). For a right-handed batter, 4.2 seconds is considered a 60 on the 20-80 scouting scale; 4.1 seconds, a 70.

Here’s the middle one of those grounders, on which Springer recorded his first major-league hit: