Freddie Freeman Is a Metronome

The calendar simply flipped over to June, and in some way we’ve but to write down even one article about one of the best place participant in all of baseball this season. Not that it’s a shock; nothing about one of the best place participant in all of baseball is a shock.

If you Google “Freddie Freeman” and “killer,” in simply the primary web page of outcomes, you’ll discover references to Freeman as a Nats killer, a Braves killer, a Mets killer, a Phillies killer, and a Cubs killer. (If you don’t use the citation marks, you’ll get references to Freeman as a Mets killer and a Nats killer, plus a bunch of headlines about an precise assassin.) But right here’s the factor: in the event you take a look at Freeman’s efficiency in opposition to each workforce in baseball and rank them by wOBA, solely a kind of 5 groups is even within the high 12. It feels private regardless of who you root for, however Freeman is simply an everyone killer. It’s a conundrum straight out of Catch-22.

“They’re trying to kill me,” Yossarian informed him calmly.
“No one’s trying to kill you,” Clevinger cried.
“Then why are they shooting at me?” Yossarian requested.
“They’re shooting at everyone,” Clevinger answered. “They’re trying to kill everyone.”
“And what difference does that make?”

(The Braves are the one workforce that’s really within the high 12; they’re quantity 4. Freeman has a .361 common and a 206 wRC+ in opposition to them, and for apparent causes he may very well need to kill them.)

Still, Freeman is completely operating roughshod over the remainder of the league this season. The Dodgers first baseman has a 170 wRC+, third-best in all of baseball, and his 2.9 WAR is greater than everybody who isn’t Zac Gallen. That’s a track we’ve heard earlier than. Freeman had a 157 wRC+ final yr. And a 135 wRC+ in 2021. And a 186 wRC+ in 2020. I’ve seven nieces and nephews, and the final time Freeman wasn’t at the very least 30% higher than the typical hitter, six of them hadn’t been born but. Fun reality: the seventh was born a number of months earlier than Freeman’s first season and is now sufficiently old to be hitting dingers of her personal.

The 33-year-old Freeman has performed in each Dodgers recreation this season and is slashing .344/.416/.589. He’s on a 20-game hit streak, and 14 of them (together with 4 of the final 5) have been multi-hit video games. “Just trying to keep it simple, not overthink things, trying to take what they give me,” is the fiery quote that he gave reporters. “I’ve been getting results the last few weeks.” That’s one technique to describe a actually historic run wherein he set Dodgers information for each doubles and extra-base hits in a calendar month.

So what’s Freeman doing in another way this yr? Well… nothing specifically. He’s been a bit extra aggressive on the primary pitch. He’s placing the ball in play a bit extra, although his contact fee is down. And his common exit velocity is up regardless that his hard-hit fee is down. But all these stats are all nicely inside his profession norms. The solely fully new factor in Freeman’s statistical profile is that he’s chasing simply 27.2% of the time, which might beat his profession low by a full share level. Take a take a look at these two extraordinarily comparable warmth maps of his swing fee. Last yr is on the left and this yr is on the proper:

Freeman is in search of the ball on the within a part of the plate a bit extra and chasing it outdoors a bit much less. And that’s about it. Can you blame us for not writing a few man whose closest comp is a metronome? (To be truthful, it must be a very nice metronome.)

It’s cool to be unpredictable. Consistency simply isn’t that cool. If it have been, the identify Constance would nonetheless be a classy identify somewhat than peaking in recognition 73 years in the past. Over the course of his profession, Freeman has missed fewer than six video games in a season eight occasions and greater than 15 video games solely twice. If I have been him, I’d be actually aggravated that there’s an award for the Comeback Player of the Year however no award for the Never Left Player of the Year.

Freeman is the preeminent line-drive hitter of this period, and fortuitously for us, that is the period wherein we began holding observe of line drive fee. Excluding the 2020 season (a season wherein Freeman was named the NL MVP and had a line drive fee of 31.1%), solely 4 certified gamers have ever had a line drive fee above 30% for an entire season. Freeman has executed it three separate occasions. In the final 10 years, he’s led the league in line drive fee six occasions and by no means completed decrease than twelfth. According to our database, at 27.6%, he has the second-highest line drive fee of all time, behind Corey Sullivan, who performed components of 5 seasons from 2005 to ’10. Line drive fee is not normally as sticky as most different batted ball metrics. Freeman and Luis Arraez are the uncommon gamers who appear to have the ability to sit on the very high of the league yr after yr after yr.

You know what’s thrilling about that? It units him as much as age very gracefully. Freeman’s Statcast sliders for common exit velocity, max exit velocity, and hard-hit fee have at all times stayed solidly within the purple, however line drives are precious even in the event you don’t hit them that onerous. As lengthy as he can nonetheless drive the ball at a great launch angle, he’ll be capable of succeed whilst the facility begins to go, and the house runs flip into doubles, and the doubles flip into singles. Which is nice. It’s thrilling — thrilling even. It means Freeman can simply carry on doing what he’s doing over and over. And once more. And once more.