If you happen to be watching this Friday's WBC opener for Team USA vs Colombia keep an eye out for Jhonathan Solano, a non-roster invitee to the Nationals' spring training camp. Solano will be fighting Philadelphia's Jorge Alfaro and KC's NRI Meibrys Viloria for catching duties but he seems to have a knack for making the most of his opportunities lately.
In 6 spring training games this year Solano took his 13 plate appearances and posted an .833/.846/1.250/2096 slashline (that's 10 for 12 with 3 dbls, a tpl and a hbp). http://www.masnsports.com/nationals-pastime/2017/03/what-can-be-gleaned-from-spring-training-statistics.html
More incredible has been what Solano has done on a pitch-by-pitch basis. According to mlb.com stats Solano has seen exactly 13 pitches in those 13 PAs and put every one of them in play except for the ball Mike Pelfry threw to plunk him. Ok, a closer inspection of the data shows that a suspicious number of at bats in a few of the early games that implied first pitch swinging by all batters that didn't walk or hit a homer so it might just be the default setting mlb.com uses when it doesn't have the data, but there's no proof he didn't rack up a single ball or strike in his 13 appearances!
In fact, I'd go so far as put him in line for a Bobby Kielty award for pitch efficiency. Kielty, you'll recall, faced one single pitch in his World Series career as a pinch hitter in the 8th inning of Game 4 in 2007. Kielty hit Brian Fuentes' offering for a home run which would eventually prove to be the winning margin in the clinching game of Boston's 2nd championship of the decade. He was immediately replaced in the bottom half of the 8th and so never played the field, making Fuentes' one pitch to him the sum of his entire World Series experience. Kielty also never made another major league roster, making that home run his last act as a major leaguer.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/8810-boston-red-sox-ink-bobby-kielty
Ok, the Kielty story was a bit of an aside and the Solano 10 hits in 13 pitches is probably a bit of a stretch, but spare a look for this guy as at the very least he seems to be smokin' hot right now.
In 6 spring training games this year Solano took his 13 plate appearances and posted an .833/.846/1.250/2096 slashline (that's 10 for 12 with 3 dbls, a tpl and a hbp). http://www.masnsports.com/nationals-pastime/2017/03/what-can-be-gleaned-from-spring-training-statistics.html
More incredible has been what Solano has done on a pitch-by-pitch basis. According to mlb.com stats Solano has seen exactly 13 pitches in those 13 PAs and put every one of them in play except for the ball Mike Pelfry threw to plunk him. Ok, a closer inspection of the data shows that a suspicious number of at bats in a few of the early games that implied first pitch swinging by all batters that didn't walk or hit a homer so it might just be the default setting mlb.com uses when it doesn't have the data, but there's no proof he didn't rack up a single ball or strike in his 13 appearances!
In fact, I'd go so far as put him in line for a Bobby Kielty award for pitch efficiency. Kielty, you'll recall, faced one single pitch in his World Series career as a pinch hitter in the 8th inning of Game 4 in 2007. Kielty hit Brian Fuentes' offering for a home run which would eventually prove to be the winning margin in the clinching game of Boston's 2nd championship of the decade. He was immediately replaced in the bottom half of the 8th and so never played the field, making Fuentes' one pitch to him the sum of his entire World Series experience. Kielty also never made another major league roster, making that home run his last act as a major leaguer.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/8810-boston-red-sox-ink-bobby-kielty
Ok, the Kielty story was a bit of an aside and the Solano 10 hits in 13 pitches is probably a bit of a stretch, but spare a look for this guy as at the very least he seems to be smokin' hot right now.
