After the Miami Marlins’ Luis Arajes went 0-for-4, ESPN wrote, “Something very strange happened tonight in Seattle. Marlins second baseman Arajuez failed to get a hit.
Arajuez had gone 0-for-4 in four at-bats against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park that day.
It was the 11th time this season he hasn’t gotten a hit and the first time in nine games since March 3 against the Oakland Athletics.
The reason for the extra attention is that Arajuez is on pace for a .400 batting average. It had been 81 years since Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox (.406) in 1941 until last year. The closest hitter to get to .400 since Williams was Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres in 1994. He hit .394 that year to win the batting title for the fifth time in his career.토토사이트
Along with the 56-game hitting streak that Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees achieved the same year, a .400 average is considered impregnable and difficult to recapture in the major leagues. Numerous legends have attempted to tackle this unconquerable plateau, but have slipped up time and time again.
Arajuez went 1-for-5 against the Chicago White Sox on April 12, dropping his batting average from a high of .403 to .397, and then went silent in Seattle the next day, dropping it further to .391. Now, two or three hits in a game can raise his batting average by more than five runs, but it’s much harder to raise a slumping average as the season progresses.
So what does the man himself, Arajuez, think of a .400 average? “It’s huge for me,” he told ESPN after the conclusion of a three-game series against the White Sox on April 12. I can’t believe I’m hitting .400, and it’s only June. I want to keep hitting the way I’m hitting, and my team is doing well right now, so I want to help.”
That doesn’t mean there isn’t pressure. “It’s fun to have everyone talking about you,” Araez said, “but social media is the worst for me. People are bombarding me with texts and DMs. I don’t want to know, but my fans write down my batting average every time. There’s no way I don’t know,” he said.
Araúez is trying to become the first player in 82 years to hit .400 since 1941. AFP
Araújo’s batting average is a concern for fans and on-field leaders everywhere. Miami manager Skip Schumaker said, “Batting average is still important for hitters. When I was a player, I wanted to have a three in front of my name, and hitting a triple was very special. Nowadays, even though OPS is the trend, hitters go to the plate knowing exactly what their batting average is. Of course they know what his batting average is.”
What’s interesting is that Arajuez has never been a hard-hitting hitter. According to Statcast, of the 153 players who have hit .300 or better since 2015, only seven have a hard-hit rate of less than 25% (batted balls over 95 mph).
Araúez’s hard-hit rate this season is 23.4%, which ranks 256th out of 263 players with at least one plate appearance. That’s bottom of the pack. Aaron Judge leads the league at 62.6%, and Matt Chapman of the Toronto Blue Jays is second at 61.3%. Freddie Freeman of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the second-best hitter behind Arajuez, is 78th at 45.2%.
Araúez’s average batted ball speed is also low, at 88.1 mph, ranking 181st. Jersey tops the list at 97.2 mph, and San Diego’s Juan Soto, who is not far behind in terms of accuracy, is 14th overall at 92.8 mph. There’s a whopping 9.1 mph difference in batted ball speed between Jersey and Arajuez. This is the difference between a pitcher’s fastball and slider.
Hitters who hit a lot of hard pitches usually have higher batting averages. It makes sense. But Arajuez’s hit production is so good because he doesn’t swing at bad pitches and hits the ones he wants to hit. This allows him to hit pitches evenly to both left and right.
White Sox pitcher Mike Clevinger said, “He doesn’t swing for the fences. I want him to be fooled by the pitches I throw, but he’s jingling. You can’t get stuck on one pitch or one course. Scouting reports don’t matter when you’re facing him.”