Author: /u/nippsvontwist

So, a ‘long’ way back in in 2018 i submitted this article to /r/Astros in this thread about a glaring decline in Yuli’s power at the plate.

One interesting fact that I learned from the thread was he had recently had hamate surgery in his hand.

But what I want to focus on right now is the adjustment pitchers made to him back in that season. The gist of the article is that pitchers adjusted to throwing him low and away in a targeted location, and Yuli had diminishing barrels from that adjustment. Essentially, they found his “weak spot.” The question I had at the time was whether he would be able to readjust to that change.

Here I have posted his heatmaps of the 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022 seasons with his batting numbers in the last image. I skipped 2020 because it was an off-year for a lot of batters, and also it didn’t jive with the point I am getting at, lol.

Anyway, it appears that Yuli never really adjusted to hitting those low and away pitches, and instead pitchers for whatever reason did not use that location on him consistently in 2019 and 2021. His 2021 batting title year has the most middle-middle inside pitches out of the short collection.

It looks like pitchers this year are once again using that 2018 location where Yuli had his worst hitting career with the Astros since his debut.

I thought this was interesting, but I’m not sure if it’s actually statistically valid. Just some food for thought.