Gregory Polanco and Sean Rodriguez Are Murdering Baseballs

Through the first 45 games of the season, no one on the Pittsburgh Pirates is hitting the ball with more authority than Gregory Polanco and Sean Rodriguez.

Prior to the start of the season had you asked Pittsburgh Pirates fans which players would prove to be the ones hitting the ball the hardest in 2016, you probably would have gotten some varying answers. Andrew McCutchen, Jung Ho Kang, and Starling Marte would have all been popular answers. However, in a testament to how deep an offensive team the Pittsburgh Pirates are, it has not been any of these players.

Through the season’s first two months the players that have been hitting the ball with the most authority for the Pittsburgh Pirates have been outfielder Gregory Polanco and utility man Sean Rodriguez. Now, while Gregory Polanco’s emergence has been a great thing to see it is not a total surprise. Throughout his Minor League career Polanco was touted as one of the top prospects in baseball, and he had shown flashes of it during his first two seasons in the Major Leagues.

With Sean Rodriguez though it’s a different story. Prior to the 2016 season Rodriguez had only ever  posted an OPS over .700 on four occasions in his nine year Major League career, with the highest he ever posted being .716 in his second Major League season of 2009. Last season, Sean Rod post just a .642 OPS with a ISO of .116.

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The two main stats I will be using in this article are ISO and exit velocity. ISO judges how often a player collects extra base hits. An ISO in the range of .140-.170 is considered average, .170-.200 is above average, .200-.250 is great, and anything over .250 is excellent. You can read more about ISO here.

Exit velocity is pretty self explanatory. This is a stat that records how fast a baseball is going when it leaves a player’s bat. This is a stat that the Pittsburgh Pirates value greatly, and for good reason. The harder a player hits the ball, the more likely they are to record a base hit.

So far in 2016 Gregory Polanco is doing everything well. He is slashing .317/.402/.557/.957 with a .402 wOBA, 158 wRC+, a WAR of 2.4 (which is higher than his WAR from all of last season), and he leads the National League with 18 doubles. Polanco has also stolen six bases while playing outstanding defense.

Gregory Polanco has absolutely been murdering baseballs in 2016. Polanco’s ISO is .240, and his exit velocity is 91.44 miles per hour. The league average for exit velocity is 88.46 miles per hour. This increase in exit velocity for Polanco is a big reason for him taking off at the plate this season.

As for Sean Rodriguez, he is probably having the most surprising season of any hitter on the Pittsburgh Pirates roster. Sean Rod has a .295/.394/.607/1.001 slash line this season, a .425 wOBA, 173 wRC+, and his WAR of 0.8 is equal to the 0.8 WAR he combined to post the past three seasons.

Sean Rodriguez leads the Pittsburgh Pirates in ISO this year at .311, and his exit velocity is 92.81 miles per hour. Rodriguez’s 92.81 mile per hour exit velocity also leads the Pirates this season. So, believe it or not, no player has hit the ball harder for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2016 than Sean Rodriguez.

In the offseason, Sean Rodriguez put a lot of time and effort into improving at the plate. So far in the 2016 season, the results are showing. Last season Rodriguez hit four home runs and walked five times, he has already hit five home runs and walked nine times in 2016. But most impressive, has been the way Sean Rodriguez has been murdering baseballs including the home run he hit last night that had an exit velocity of 106 miles per hour.

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Even though not many people, if anyone in Sean Rodriguez’s case, would have guessed the two Pittsburgh Pirates hitters that have hit the ball with the most authority this season have been Gregory Polanco and Sean Rodriguez. In Polanco’s case it can be chalked up as a young budding superstar starting to fulfill his potential. While with Rodriguez it’s a veteran hitter who worked hard in the offseason to become a better hitter. In both cases, the Pittsburgh Pirates are benefiting greatly.

*- All stats and data for this article come from Fangraphs and MLB’s Stat Cast