The Pitch that Each Houston Astros Hitter Crushes

Let’s take a look at which pitches Astros’ hitters crush the most.

Back in the summer I did a series on each Houston Astros‘ pitcher’s best pitch – the one that gets outs and, in short, his best pitch. In this article, I’m going to share the best pitch for each batter throughout the lineup as we know it as of early December.

What follows is based largely on expected weighted on base average (xwOBA) as the main metric, with others considered, from Baseball Savant for the 2021 season.

It was an interesting exercise in that some were obvious and some not so obvious. While fans use advanced metrics for a variety of reasons, I use them to learn and attempt to understand why, for example, a pitcher throws, or doesn’t throw, a particular pitch to a particular batter.