The Pitch that Each Houston Astros Hitter Crushes

Martin Maldonado – Cutter

This was the toughest call and perhaps not for the reason you think.  We all know Martin Maldonado struggled at the plate in 2021. While most of the first eight batters’ expected numbers correlated to their actual numbers to some degree, Maldonado’s are out of whack. The highest run value (changeup) has horrible expected numbers and below average actuals.

Maldonado saw more of a variety of pitches than most, but some of those he saw so few of (as few as 10) that I’m not comfortable choosing those. That leaves me with the cutter which Maldonado had a wOBA of .338, xSLG of .405 and xBA of .237 on.

Astros’ fans would take those numbers in a heartbeat considering the actuals were .300, .333 and .190, respectively.