Ryan O’Hearn and the case against batting average

I’m going to be 100% honest with you, I was really worried about Ryan O’Hearn during his time at AAA this season. Last year with AAA Omaha, O’Hearn posted an OPS of .776 with 18 HR in 114 games, good for a 99 wRC+. Not great, but not bad for 23-year old in his first bout at the highest level of Minor League Baseball. With the signing of Lucas Duda this spring, it was apparent that O’Hearn would begin 2018 back with Omaha, and I was excited to see how he’d progress.

He somehow got worse, statistically speaking. His walk rate was up, his strikeout rate was down, he just wasn’t having the same success hitting the ball that he’d had in 2017. Part of that is thanks to a batting average on balls…