But, when seen in the light of this years AL MVP debate, as well as the context of these four young outfielders, it is remarkable that Heyward has taken a similar path to Mike Trout, even with an athleticism that might be touch short of that demonstrated by the American League Rookie of the Year. This season I am using FanGraphs Roster Resource Depth Charts * as the source of default lineups. The way hitters hit the ball is a reflection of the swing and the approach, and so look at what you see above. Hitters think about driving the ball in the air up the middle or to the pull side, and then when the contact isnt just right, a grounder gets yanked. Hes hit 24 homers the last two years combined. Crawford debuted young, but due to a team-friendly contract, he did not become a free agent until after his age-28 season, three years older than Heyward. The lack of power does prevent easy comparison to most free agent mega-deals. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted Jason Heyward LAD OF L Born: 08/09/1989 Age: 33 FanGraphs Player Page Auctions are not allowed at this time On MLB 40-man: NO Acquired: Free Agent (CHC) Dec'22 Positions OF Overall Last 10. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. Id imagine all those infield popups are at least partly due to his bum shoulder. Solid production, that, despite some disappointing seasons mixed in. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, It took the Dodgers six games into their Cactus League schedule, but they finally achieved the ultimate spring . Just like I wanted to see one in there. Check out the company Heyward kept among under-21 hitters qualifying for the batting title: If youre keeping score at home, there are 13 Hall of Famers and two future first-ballot Hall of Famers on that list of 22 names. Heres why. The above comparison paints an incredibly optimistic and rosy view of Heywards future, but there is some evidence to suggest that phenoms like Heyward age better than the rest of the population. Heywards value also wasnt helped by a Braves lineup that finished among baseballs worst in wOBA and runs scored, and if the Braves were to move Evan Gattis this winter to make room for Christian Bethancourt, the lineup likely would only be weaker in 2015. It was a true comfort level, not rattled at all. When we know nothing else about Jason Heyward except the way he hits singles, doubles, triples, home runs and walks without regard for his offensive contributions on the basepaths or his defense, his comps would be worth $159 million. Jason Heyward was a very good baseball player for a very long time. Consider this an expansion on Matt Klaasens crowning of Jason Heyward as the King oF Little Things if you will. Heyward was coming off a rookie season in which he popped 18 home runs and batted .277/.393/.456 at age 20, tying him with Ty Cobb for the 15th best OPS+ ever for a hitter who qualified for the batting title but couldnt legally buy a beer. All this before you look at his 11 home runs, easily a career low, less than the 14 he put up in two separate seasons when he averaged just 448 plate appearances. So what is his value in an auction re-draft league? Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 4:51 PM ET, Park Factors Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. Gavin Lux is likely . Forget about everything else. Greatest Careers Through Age 25 Since World War II, Jason Heyward WAR Comps, Age 26 to Age 30, Jason Heyward WAR Comps, Age 26 to Age 35, Jason Heyward Offense-Only Comps Through Age 25, Jason Heyward Offense-Only Comps, Age 26 Through Age 35, Jason Heyward Defense-Only Comps Through Age 26, Jason Heyward Defense-Only Comps, Age 26 Through Age 35. Perhaps rightfully so. What follows is going to lean upon some spring-training data. It may sound strange, but in a way Heywards 2011 season is actually a testament to his supreme ability. He flew out to center field in his other at-bat in Friday's game. Just a couple years ago, it was Jason Heyward and Giancarlo Stanton that were tearing up baseball, looking like an unprecedented pair of rookie talents ready to continue on into the stratosphere together. FanSided 1 day Jason Heyward . All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, All of this he managed while only stealing 21 bases. Its not even clear this would be a good thing. But even so, it seems like he has endured some bad luck on balls put in play. Jason Alias Heyward (born August 9, 1989), nicknamed " J-Hey " is an American professional baseball right fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. Follow/harass him on Twitter @Karl_de_Vries. The first graph is conservative, beginning the estimation of a cost of a win at $7 million with inflation set at five percent per year (although salaries have been rising at a rate greater than that amount in recent seasons and are up about 50% from half a dozen seasons ago). While those deals might no look great now, age is a major factor. 2022 600 PA / 200 IP Projections Steamer600. Contact David at david.golebiewski@gmail.com and check out his work at Journalist For Hire. Heyward is coming off his age-21 season, having just turned 22 this past August. Last year he hit for almost zero power, and his grounder pull rate went from 68% to 43%. Just ask Jason Heyward. The 2023 series on team offense continues with the New York Yankees. Shelby Miller is a good young pitcher, but straight up for Heyward? Keep looking at him, and also keep looking at his numbers, as the season begins and wears on. Heyward is actually the most accomplished offensive player in the group due to being worth more than 20 runs above average on the bases, but strictly as a hitter, these are the players with similar profiles. How much will he be worth? Dodgers' Jason Heyward on new environment that's more his speed. Anyhow, heres where Heyward has hit baseballs in spring 2016: Of course Im wary of talking about anything based on so little data. I was just saying the other day that there hasnt been a free agent whos so valuable in this particular waya combination of very good performance and youthsince A-Rod in 2000. When Ellsbury was Heywards age, he had just completed his second full season. FanGraphs Mugs. But theres real doubt about his ability to deliver even 15 home runs or produce high amounts of runs and RBIs in that lineup, regardless of where he hits. As teams expect to get the best production at the beginning of the contract, they understand that a contract will likely underpay the player in the early years and potentially overpay him as he ages with the surplus from the beginning ideally canceling out the loss at the end. The team is heavy on left-handed hitting outfielders, with David Peralta locked in along with Jason Heyward fighting for a spot and top prospect James Outman on the cusp. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. I was like, I really just want to see a strike, Heaney said. Jason Heyward isnt Mike Trout. The coaches that were working with me were trying to get me to throw a sinker because sometimes my fastball sinks, Oviedo said. Heyward hasnt shown quite the same level of plate discipline this season, as his rate of swinging at pitches out of the strike zone has increased by about four percentage points (24.2 percent to 28.3 percent; the MLB average is 29-30 percent). His 23 percent infield/fly ball rate is third-highest in the majors, trailing only Corey Patterson and Mark Trumbo. What follows is an attempt to find similar players to Heyward using various methods: WAR, offense, defense, and a hybrid of offense and defense. Jason Heyward LAD OF L Born: 08/09/1989 Age: 33 FanGraphs Player Page Auctions are not allowed at this time On MLB 40-man: NO Acquired: Free Agent (CHC) Dec'22 Positions OF Overall Last 10 All. There are not enough players here to draw conclusions, but it might be worth looking into whether good, young defensive players age better overall as hitters. But just looking at how Heyward has hit the ball, there are early signs that hes concentrating on pop. Heres a powerful triple to center. Gomber is working on a two-seam, sinking fastball that he hopes will work at altitude. Heyward, a .211-hitter in 2021 and 2022, made significant swing changes over the winter. Especially because of the accidental report that floated this week about Canario already being back on the field doing baseball work (he's not; still way too early for . Others call it a slurve or even a whirlybird. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. His average ranking is 7.5. The games, as you well know, havent mattered yet. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. Contract: 8 yr, $184M (2016-23) AAV: $23.0M. Last season, Oviedos fastball had five fewer inches of rise or more sink than four-seam fastballs at similar velocities. Crossword; Sudoku; Crossword; Sudoku _____ About Us As in the case of the first table, we again see some of the greatest baseball players. There are few who doubt that, after finishing up his sixth season in Major League Baseball, Jason Heyward is a good player. My favorite minor story line this season is that the Cubs are paying about $40 million to replace Heyward with Bellinger, and the Dodgers are paying about $0 to replace Bellinger with Heyward. Mike Trout represented, perhaps, a belief that we could quantify the other aspects of the game and assign them value. . by Handedness, swung at more pitches thrown outside of the strike zone. Im not all that mad about it. The pre-season #1 prospect, whose legend grew with each car he dented while going deep in spring training, batted .277/.393/.456. Jason Heyward CF B/T: L/L 6' 5" 240LBS Age: 33 Draft: 2007 Rd: 1, #14, Atlanta Braves Henry County (GA) HS Player Apps Pitch Highlighter Player Similarity Shifts Swing Take Profile illustrator Zone Swing Profile Player Comparison Transaction History Show Random Video Stats Statcast Standard Splits Game Logs MLB Minors Batting Fielding Visuals All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. While Heyward did fall into some bad habits at the plate last year and has some durability concerns, this is a perfect time to buy low on a youthful outfielder with superstar potential. Support FanGraphs. Gallo got the upper hand on the Red Sox in his second inning at-bat, drawing a walk to nullify Boston's shift. Interestingly, although Heyward swung less frequently than in any season since his 2010 debut, he finished with a 10.3% walk rate thats below his career average and set a new personal low for pitches per plate appearance. The ZiPS top prospect list (ranking on the basis of minor league stats and player comps - no scouting) is going to make you sad, because outfield prospect Alexander Canario shows up at number 33. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted Interesting stuff, but isnt this potentially terrible news for Heyward given that the spring spray chart only shows a significant pull increase on ground balls rather than all contact and pulled ground balls have by far the lowest success rate of any balls in play? That Aaron Boone batting order is plugged into the Lineup . For my ease, I took five-year averages for both WAR and the cost of a win when calculating the total. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity. That should tell you all you need to know about the Blue Jays plans for their fourth outfield spot, and this assignment is something he plans to grab with both hands. The Dodgers lost their starting shortstop for the entirety of the 2023 season in the third game of spring training. This spring, Heyward has hit 18 flies and liners, and hes sent two of them toward left. Gift a Membership. Its impossible for anyone outside of the Braves training room and front office to assess Heywards health. Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 4:51 PM ET, Park Factors All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. But lets diagnose why Atlantas prodigy is turning in a subpar sophomore season. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. . Thats just how it goes. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. That was awesome, Kapler said. It doesnt matter that Heyward has still been productive; he looks like he should be a beast of a hitter, so its odd to see him hit singles and doubles. Heres a bomb to right-center. Freddie Freeman homers, Miguel Vargas walks again, Walker Buehler starts throwing. He will split time with utility player Chris Taylor, who started at shortstop against Texas on Wednesday. Age plays a crucial rule in projecting a players long-term performance, and Heyward still has plenty of development time left before he reaches what are typically the peak years of a hitters career. But in the previous five years, he had bounced between eight different organizations, unable to find his footing in the majors before an opportunity arose with the Dodgers. Searching again for players from 1960 to 2007, limiting those players through age-25 within 20% of Heywards PAs, but instead of using WAR, look at players with a wRC+ between 110 and 125 and within 15 points of Heywards 121 wRC+ at age 25. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. Apparently the Dodgers will do anything to keep James Outman on the farm. Taylor may also appear at third base in Cactus League games. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. These were the players remaining. So I was like, Im just gonna kind of throw it at him down the middle. And he hit it out. Last season was a huge disappointment for the Los Angeles Dodgers, as they were dropped in the NLDS by the rival San Diego Padres. Reported as the pre-2023 season number of waiver options remaining. Jason Heyward Reality Check | FanGraphs Membership Maybe you heard that some guy named Jason Heyward made the Atlanta Braves' Opening Day roster. fangraphs.com 1d. Theres a pretty good distribution of balls around the field. With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. A year ago, Jason Heyward was a fantasy baseball stud muffin. FOX Sports - Rowan Kavner 1d. Ideally, we could look for players like Jason Heyward who are good offensively and defensively and see how those players performed. Overall, the group still put up above average numbers offensively. At an age when most players are chasing a trip to Omaha or cutting their teeth in Low Class-A, Jason Heyward crushed major league pitching in 2010. Thats baserunning without those gaudy stolen bases. Heyward, a .211-hitter in 2021 and 2022, made significant swing changes over the winter. News; Wikipedia: . Nick Frasso, who had a 1.83 ERA and 76 strikeouts in 54 innings last season, was acquired from the Blue Jays in . Heyward has been an above average offensive player, incredible on defense, and heading into free agency a few months after turning 26 years old, provides few realistic players for comparison. Jason Heyward. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not. The hard contact, however, is further reinforcement that some offseason swing changes are paying dividends. However, if we want some sort of hybrid, we can look at the declines of the offensive comps and the defensive comps and combine them. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. That has something to do with the Angels deciding to play Trout in the corner outfield from time to time, but it also has a lot to do with Heyward having great range for a corner outfielder. In 2022, Heyward will earn a base salary of $22,000,000, with a total salary of $24,500,000. by Handedness, Trying to Put a Value on Jason Heyward in Free Agency, Effectively Wild Episode 761: An Offseason Friday Gallimaufry, The Best of FanGraphs: November 2-6, 2015. With better luck, health and a little more development, Heyward could be a monster in 2012. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. . The next group of comps considers only offensive production. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs. Non-roster invitee Ronald Guzmn, who is in Giants camp as a two-way player, made his pitching debut in the ninth, surrendering a solo shot to P.J. 2023 Pre-Season Projections Maybe hed find a different path to a familiar destination. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. For a big man, he can run a little All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, Jacoby Ellsbury just finished Year Two of his contract. This spring, Heyward has hit 17 grounders, and hes pulled all but one of them. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted According to Statcast, Walker registered a sprint speed of 28.5 feet per second with 30 feet per second being considered elite-level speed usually reserved for middle infielders and cat-quick centerfielders. According to FanGraphs, the 26-year-old was worth 6.0 fWAR (FanGraphs' Wins Above Replacement) in '15the sixth most WAR among outfielders. If thats something hes really doing, its probably because hes trying to up his power output. Attempting to measure defense with advanced statistics like UZR and DRS has its critics, and attempting to place a value on it can be difficult. 2022 Updated In-Season Projections Cubs president Jed Hoyer announced Monday the club intends to release veteran outfielder Jason Heyward from the final year of his deal at the end of the 2022 season. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, Notable in the Dodgers lineup is Jason Heyward playing in back-to-back games for the first time this spring, starting in centerfield for the second straight day. Free agent Jason Heyward agreed to a $184 million, eight-year contract with the Cubs, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. He made his MLB debut that night against the Washington Nationals as a replacement for Jason Heyward, going hitless in 3 at-bats. Yeah, if continued this would make him shiftable. The most important years are likely to be those at the beginning, in which the team hopes to underpay their player. To isolate players similar to Heyward, I looked for players from 1960 to 2007 within five of Heywards 27.8 WAR and within 20% of his 3429 plate appearances. Ive pulled some images from Baseball Savant. Crawford is WAY ahead of simba according to pretty much every defensive metric this year. Los Angeles Dodgers Betting Prediction: Road to the MLB 2023 Season. This group also aged incredibly well. Phillies (24th, 1.4 WAR) With Bryce Harper undergoing Tommy John surgery and likely to miss the first half of the season, the spotlight is again on Nick Castellanos, whose performance in the first year of his five-year, $100 million deal was downright dreadful. The other groups, with players similar to some aspect of Heywards game, but inferior in other ways, make Heyward a high-quality player, one perhaps worthy of a $200 million contract, but not a Hall of Famer. Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 4:51 PM ET, Park Factors All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, Time now for our annual spin through players whose luck in 2022 was worse (or better) than their fortune deserved. dodgersnation.com - Jeff Snider 10h Read more on dodgersnation.com All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. Looking solely at defense, these are the types of players who compare with Heyward. Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 4:51 PM ET, Park Factors All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted The Fans: .279/.378/.468, 21 HR. The Chicago Cubs outfielder hit a third of batted balls in play in the air in 2016, but saw his slugging percentage dip to a career-low (.325) due to his exit velocity . Depending on ones point of view, it was an effort that was either an improvement in his development as a still-young hitter or a disturbing blight on his future value. by Handedness, Making Too Much of Too Little Jason Heyward, Effectively Wild Episode 852: 2016 Season Preview Series: Chicago Cubs, Evaluating the 2016 Prospects: St. Louis Cardinals, pulled ground balls have by far the lowest success rate of any balls in play. Its where most hitters are strongest, and when Heyward had his powerful 2012, he hit just three of his homers the other way. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. by Handedness. by Retrosheet. 1 seed Bradley Braves (24-8, 16-4 MVC) square off against the No. Meanwhile, the team is likely stuck with big contracts for the likes of B.J. by Retrosheet. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. FanGraphs crowdsourcing puts Heywards predicted contract at eight years and $184 million while Dave Cameron predicted a return to the Cardinals on a nine-year, $195 million contract with an opt-out after four years, making the value of the contract in excess of $200 million. He hit 27 home runs in 2012, but recorded just 13 of them this year along with an isolated slugging percentage of .146, essentially league average. Jason Hayward signed an 8-year/$184,000,000 contract with the Chicago Cubs, which includes a $20,000,000 signing bonus, $184,000,000 guaranteed, and an annual average salary of $23,000,000. by Retrosheet. Unfortunately, for studying purposes anyway, there simply are not enough of those types of players to look at. Players are always free to change their minds about anything. Heyward will get paid. Jason Heyward Positions: Rightfielder, Centerfielder and Leftfielder Bats: Left Throws: Left 6-5 , 240lb (196cm, 108kg) Born: August 9, 1989 (Age: 33-206d) in Ridgewood, NJ us More bio, uniform, draft, salary info 1x All-Star 2016 World Series 5x Gold Glove Wilson Overall Def Player 22 22 22 Become a Stathead & surf this site ad-free. I cant wait to see how this turns out. But a lot of the value Heyward accumulated last season he did in a fashion that might seem Troutian. The grounders are just about all pulled. 2023 Updated In-Season Projections His plate discipline improved as well, as he set a new career best with a 15.1% strikeout rate, fueled by his best SwStr% and Contact% rates yet. For instance, Heyward, batting primarily in the leadoff spot for the first time in his career, put up a solid .351 OBP, scored 74 runs and stole 20 bases at an impressive 83% success rate, all while batting .271, the second-best mark of his big league tenure. With such an advanced plate approach and gargantuan numbers in the minors (he slashed .323/.408/.555 while rising from High-A to Triple-A as a teenager in 2009), Heyward reached the show years before most hitters do. Second, if Heywards defense declines he ages, he is not likely to be of much value. Im not going to worry about it.. Ottoneu Fantasy Baseball. Dont look at me. Those are just selective links, but they show Heyward with a right-center approach, and a good amount of batted-ball authority. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. On Friday, the Cubs won the bidding for Jason Heyward, convincing the outfielder to come to Chicago despite offers for more guaranteed money from the Nationals, the Cardinals, and reportedly. Players who rove around the outfield will qualify at the specific outfield position where he played the most innings provided it was a minimum of 75 percent (475 innings) of total innings at the specific position. I used ten-year figures in this analysis, but moving to an eight- or nine-year contract would not significantly change the values, as the bulk of all production is recorded in the early part of the contract. Andrew Heaney is fine with throwing meatballs. Hes still really young 1 day ago. Whatever the name, it might become a problem for them. Swinging at more off-the-plate pitches, hitting the ball up the elevator shaft, smacking ground balls like a slap-hitting middle infielder none of these are good things. . Regarding the second concern, I attempted to isolate only very good fielding outfielders. With all this hype Im still trying to figure out why the Braves basically gave this guy away?? and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. I then looked at age-25 performance and eliminated anyone who was not within two wins of Heywards six-win season this year. Everything that could go wrong did, yet he held his own at age 21. If Heyward were coming off a .270/.365/.445-type season instead, you can bet he wouldnt be getting drafted behind guys like Corey Hart and Jayson Werth. Drafted: 2007 June Amateur Draft - Round: 1, Pick: 14, Overall: 14, Team: Atlanta Braves. by Handedness, 2007 June Amateur Draft - Round: 1, Pick: 14, Overall: 14, Team: Atlanta Braves. Heywards production, meanwhile, has been excellent from an early age, similar to multiple Hall of Famers. Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or . Jeff Zimmerman found that speedy players, like Heyward, age better than the rest of the baseball population. He clearly can the man stands 65. Only Al Kaline, Willie Mays, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Alex Rodriguez were within 15 runs on defense and ahead of him on offense. Some call it a sweeper. Chicago Cubs. Here is how they performed over their next ten seasons. But the power was largely absent. Alan Trejo will likely move into the second base spot with Brendan Rodgers on the IL. I think the Bogaerts and Carpenter examples are meant to show that, while ground ball pull rate might not seem to be related to power at all (as you say, ground balls are not that great usually), Jeff thinks of it as an indicator of change.. Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 4:51 PM ET, Park Factors Age is the decisive factor here. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. Roberts described Jason Heyward, the former Cub who came to Dodgers camp as a non-roster invite, as "more than adequate" in the field at center. Sure, Bourn did not light the world on fire with his wRC+ of 117 and slash line of .274/.348/.391, but it was 17.0 percent better than league average. . But thats never safe against a hitter like Betts, who launched it deep over the left-center-field wall at Surprise Stadium. But as long as were just having fun here, consider a few numbers. Andrelton A. Simmons 198994 18888426 . $8? The team is confident in . No matter which group you look at, he is likely to be a productive player at age 30. Higgins over one inning. Biggio knows right field well. He looked like a pitcher.. The general concern around Heyward and defense is twofold. Kiner-Falefa had a slash line of .261/.314/.327 . Out of 11 players, only Jim Fregosis production would not have justified a $200 million contract. Thompson revived his career in Los Angeles last summer, hitting 13 homers with a .901 OPS. The numbers may seem outrageous, but MLB revenues have been rising at very high rates, and there is so rarely a player of Heywards caliber and age that the market will likely have a difficult time finding a consensus. Heyward was a little below the average offensively and well above the average defensively. Quite obviously, Im lukewarm on Heyward, and his upside might merit a few dollars more, but Id need to see him take a step forward before I start paying for him as a frontline fantasy cornerstone.
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