Meet Josh Thole, the contact whiz
In researching a pregame story about Mets rookie catcher Josh Thole this evening, I uncovered some interesting statistics on one of my favorite baseball sites, Fangraphs.com.
NOTE: At the time of this posting, Thole has stepped to the plate 24 times in the big leagues, so be sure to take all of this with a big fat grain of salt. BUT...
In those plate appearances, Thole has a contact rate of 93.9 percent -- that is, when he has swung, he has hit the ball an incredible 93.9 percent of the time. Albert Pujols, by comparison, has a contact rate of 86.7 percent. Strikeout king Mark Reynolds is at 62.6 percent.
On balls inside the strike zone, Thole has made contact 96.2 percent of the time.
Now I'm by no means saying Josh Thole is a better hitter than Albert Pujols or Mark Reynolds, but what you should take home is this: Thole's ability to put bat on ball is well beyond his years. And that's important.
Earlier today, Manuel spoke about Thole's ability to be a two-hole hitter at some point in the future, and good No. 2 hitters do two things well: contact and bat control. At the very least, Thole is well on his way to mastering the first half of that equation.
--Anthony DiComo
NOTE: At the time of this posting, Thole has stepped to the plate 24 times in the big leagues, so be sure to take all of this with a big fat grain of salt. BUT...In those plate appearances, Thole has a contact rate of 93.9 percent -- that is, when he has swung, he has hit the ball an incredible 93.9 percent of the time. Albert Pujols, by comparison, has a contact rate of 86.7 percent. Strikeout king Mark Reynolds is at 62.6 percent.
On balls inside the strike zone, Thole has made contact 96.2 percent of the time.
Now I'm by no means saying Josh Thole is a better hitter than Albert Pujols or Mark Reynolds, but what you should take home is this: Thole's ability to put bat on ball is well beyond his years. And that's important.
Earlier today, Manuel spoke about Thole's ability to be a two-hole hitter at some point in the future, and good No. 2 hitters do two things well: contact and bat control. At the very least, Thole is well on his way to mastering the first half of that equation.
--Anthony DiComo
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