Let’s start the week with three things about the current Astros.
- Yordan Alvarez
As you probably know all too well, Yordan Alvarez has started the season with unaccustomed batting results. His batting average is .210 with a 79 wRC+. However, Alvarez’s statcast “expected” stats are better. His xwOBA (.364) leads the team. On the surface, improvement seems likely because he should have produced almost a 100 point higher wOBA.
A recent article by Fangraphs (“Yordan Alvarez and the Replacement Level Bunch”) tried to explain why one of the most elite hitters in baseball had started the season so poorly.