What in the Heck Has Gotten Into Chad Pinder?
Did you know that the A’s lead the American League in home runs? Here’s one of them:
Here’s another one of them:
Those are two mammoth home runs. More, those are two mammoth home runs hit by the same guy — one Chad Pinder. Pinder is a 25-year-old infielder who’s topped out as Baseball America’s No. 7 Oakland prospect. In Pinder’s best professional season to date, he went deep 15 times. He’s gone deep four times over his last six big-league starts.
Pinder clearly has pretty good power. Keep that in the back of your mind. There are nearly 1,700 players with at least 50 batted balls in each of the last two seasons, including both the minors and the majors. Here are the 10 players with the biggest drops in ground-ball rate:
| Player | 2016 GB% | 2017 GB% | GB Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Avila | 52% | 22% | -30% |
| Tzu-Wei Lin | 56% | 31% | -25% |
| Ti’Quan Forbes | 59% | 36% | -23% |
| Matt McPhearson | 71% | 49% | -22% |
| Vinny Siena | 45% | 23% | -22% |
| Raffy Lopez | 41% | 20% | -21% |
| Daniel Johnson | 57% | 36% | -21% |
| Arturo Nieto | 66% | 45% | -21% |
| Chad Pinder | 42% | 21% | -21% |
| Steve Berman | 43% | 23% | -21% |
Whole bunch of minor leaguers. One Alex Avila out in front, about whom Dave just wrote. Avila has dropped his grounder rate by a stunning 30 percentage points, and that’s insane, but it’s also insane that Pinder is in ninth, having dropped his own grounder rate by 21 points. Pinder’s year-to-year track record:
- 2013: 41% grounders
- 2014: 46%
- 2015: 48%
- 2016: 42%
- 2017: 21%
One of those stands out from the others, and although it’s still early, and although things can still shift, what’s remarkable is remarkable. Suddenly, Pinder looks like he’s become an extreme fly-ball hitter. There’s power there to back it up. You know how Yonder Alonso has dramatically changed his own batting profile? His grounder rate is down by 19 points. Pinder has slightly bested that.
And oh, hey, Statcast. Out of everyone in the majors with at least 30 batted balls this season, Pinder ranks second — second! — in average exit velocity. He ranks fifth in average air-ball exit velocity. He ranks seventh in rate of batted balls hit at least 95 miles per hour. Pinder has hit nine so-called “Barrels”, which ties him with, say, Carlos Correa and Anthony Rizzo, and Pinder hasn’t played very much. He’s basically insisting that he gets noticed.
So, consider him noticed. How far this goes, I can’t tell you. Dramatic early-season shifts don’t always reflect legitimate changes in true talent. Yet Pinder is off to a promising start, and just to the eye, his swing is quite pleasing. The A’s could have something here. The A’s could have something terrific.
Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.
wow. even if it is just 33 bbe.
Pinder’s been a sleeper prospect for years. Anyone who regularly hits double-digit HRs in the minors has something to work with, right? Farnsworth gave him the #2 slot in the A’s system when he wrote them up…ahead of Manaea, Chapman, and everyone else except Barreto. But even Farnsworth only have him a 50 on his power despite the results. Maybe he’s just one of those guys who does well with what he’s got.
I noticed this after like 5 games, assuming it was interesting but soon to regress to the mean and was discussing it with some A’s fans. Pinder was the Texas League MVP a couple years ago and both Midland and Nashville have horrible park factors for right handed home runs (72 and 66, respectively) so it’s possible that it was a conscious decision to play to his park. Also just possible that he’s a big Travis Sawchik fan and decided to elevate and celebrate because of the current trends. Whatever he did, I’m glad he did it.
Same thing that has gottten into Eric Sogard?
As a RedSox fan, believe me, I’ve noticed. Chad *f’in* Pinder? It’s got a ring to it – Bucky Dent would be proud.
It’s also crazy that he is doing this with an 18% Pull rate. Most of these are going out to Center field..
An odd thing: All 5 Pinder homers this year have come on the first pitch (3) or the second (both of those on 0-1 counts).
So far in his young career, Pinder has murdered those counts about equally (combined 13-25 with 9 XBH, .520 BA, 1.280 SLG), and done almost nothing otherwise (.173 BA, .267 SLG). Ahead in the count, he’s 3 for 27 with a double.