With the increase in strikeouts and decrease in offense, good hitters are becoming harder to find. We’re seeing many tweaks and adjustments from many players trying to become more powerful, even from the holy Mike Trout who is striking out more for the cause of dingers.
It would be no surprise that someone like Brandon Crawford, who had a career 84 wRC+ coming into 2014, would attempt to do something similar (wRC+ is weighted so that each point above or below 100 is 1% better/worse than league average. Crawford was 16% below league average). His batting lines couldn’t get much worse, and there was a lot to gain if he could execute the plan. Fortunately for the Giants, the current owners of the best record in baseball, the plan worked out beautifully.
The most noticeable difference about Brandon Crawford in 2014 can be observed not by reading his stat lines, looking for insider rumors or pulling numbers from datasets. It’s as simple as observing him; he changed his swing.
2013
2014
There’s a few things to look for in his swing changes:
- The pre-swing setup has gone away. In 2013 he has a very relaxed stance before gearing up as the pitcher winds up. All of that noise is gone this season
- His hands are higher, and allow his elbow to reach higher and farther back. This helps generate power by using the elbow independent of the hands to drive the ball with your core, instead of dragging the bat through the hitting zone
- There’s added loft in his swing, plus it’s more violent (compare his head movement) both of which are key for power
Crawford’s swing is all-out, instead of the contact oriented version we’ve seen in years past. He’s swinging at more pitches and making less contact. The results are more strikeouts, but with a huge jump in power.
| Year | Strikeout% | Swinging Strike% | Slugging% | Isolated Slugging | wRC+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 17.5% | 9.7% | .363 | .114 | 91 |
| 2014 | 22.5% | 11.4% | .425 | .188 | 103 |
All his numbers back up his new approach, just rip it. And the wonderful part about his adjustments is he’s a much better hitter because of it. He increased his production 12 percentage points, top third in all of baseball for wRC+ improvement. And it’s not just the results that are changing, but he’s hitting the ball differently as well.
The added loft in his swing is built for fly balls, which go for extra bases more often than grounders. His fly ball rates have launched well above league average, while pounding the ball into the ground at a significantly lower rate.
| Year | Line Drive% | Ground Ball% | Fly Ball% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 18.9% | 49.3% | 31.8% |
| 2014 | 16.2% | 38.7% | 45.1% |
His 13.3% positive swing in flies ranks second in all of baseball, and no one has cut down on grounders as much as Crawford. This has helped lead to an increase of 16.41 feet on batted ball distance, a significant surge that has seen him jump up 147 spots.
For someone lauded for his defense, Brandon Crawford has made gigantic strides towards improving his offense. The change to an aggressive approach doesn’t work for everyone, and could still end up hurting him if pitchers find a weakness. But as long as he’s hitting the ball hard when it’s in the zone, there’s nothing to worry about. He’s outpaced all of his power projections from Nate Silver’s deadly accurate PECOTA system, and his rest of season projections have him maintaining the torrid numbers.
Brandon Crawford is one of the most underrated shortstops in the game, and his breakout is a huge factor in the Giants’ success so far this season.