The good feelings of a difficult weekend in Houston were washed away in the span of a lazy fly ball that’s a home run only at Minute Maid Park and a bases loaded walk in extras.
But let’s focus on something good. And why not? Baseball returns to The K this afternoon. Finally.
Anyway, have you noticed that Mike Moustakas is ripping the baseball?
The positives on Sunday started early. Moustakas stepped to the plate against Astro starter Lance McCullers in the top of the opening frame. He laced a single to right field. Laced? Scorched was more like it. Moose’s single left his bat at 110 mph. What’s that?
Mike Moustakas single was hit 110.1 MPH… That’s the hardest ball he’s hit since April 27th of last season.
— Daren Willman (@darenw) April 9, 2017
You may recall, a year ago tomorrow, on this bandwidth, it was mentioned how Moustakas was destroying baseballs. At that point in the season’s first week, he was averaging an exit velocity north of 99 mph on his balls in play. Coming off his transformative 2015 season where he discovered the virtues of hitting the ball to the opposite field, this was a great sign that he was becoming a complete hitter. Then, the injuries happened and his season of potential turned into the season of the disabled list.
Well, he’s doing it again.
Moustakas followed his first inning single with a sixth inning laser. This may actually be insulting to lasers.
At this moment in the post, it would be really cool to provide video proof of this perfect confluence of bat speed and launch angle, but MLB, in their infinite wisdom, have not released this video for the purpose of embedding. You’ll just have to take my word for it. It’s possible the ball burned through the brave fan who stepped in front to attempt to catch it.
Anyway, that old tweet about how his single in the first was his hardest hit ball since the previous April? Yeah, that mark lasted two whole plate appearances.
Through the first six games of the new season, Moustakas has a hit in all of them. His average exit velocity is 89.9 mph, which is a full mph faster than the league average. His average launch angle of 16 degrees says he’s barreling the ball more often than not and his average distance of 251 feet confirms he’s making contact with authority. This is an exciting early season development. It’s especially reassuring given we just didn’t know how the Royals third baseman would return to form following his extended layoff.
Returns of the first week have been highly encouraging.
Meanwhile, there another new early trend that is the same as the old early trend. There just aren’t enough runners on base ahead of Moustakas for him to do the kind of damage the Royals need to have done. So far this year, he’s come to the plate with eight runners on base. Just one time has he had a runner on third. (That came in the seventh inning of the first game against the Astros when Raul Mondesi singled back to the pitcher then stole second and third.) Twice he’s had a runner on second. Meanwhile, the average major league batter with the same number of plate appearances as Moustakas has had 11 runners on base.
It’s a bit of a conundrum because Moustakas is very much at home in the second position in the lineup. The flip side is that once the order turns over that means he’s hitting behind the twin on base sinkholes of Alcides Escobar and Mondesi.
That’s something that Moustakas can’t worry about. All he can do is come to bat in each individual situation and keep stinging the ball. Sure, he’ll get fewer RBI opportunities than if he was hitting in the middle of the order, but power plays anywhere and he’ll get the chance to either clear the bases for the hitters behind them, or help set the table for the big inning.
This is the guy – not Hosmer, not Cain – this is the guy the Royals need to be making the push to extend through his free agency.