Throughout the offseason, I’ll be sharing a series on Tribe Strengths, highlighting one area in which each player excels. Up first is Jose Ramirez.
Jose Ramirez does just about everything well, but one area that really stands out is his ability make pitchers pay for mistakes. From both sides of the plate, Ramirez crushed pitches in the strike zone, batting .347. But he was particularly dominant against fastballs.
His .374 average against fastballs in the zone ranked 10th in the AL.
While this sounds like an area where most good hitters should excel, that’s not always the case and it’s an area that has been a work in progress for Ramirez in recent years:
It’s hard to imagine those numbers rising any further, but there might still be room for growth in 2018.
Ramirez hit .388 against fastballs in the zone from the left side of the plate, but struggled at times on the right side.
While his overall average of .347 from the right side was strong, he has a clear hole in his swing on the inside part of the plate:
Ramirez has made remarkable improvements each of the past two offseasons, so further growth is certainly a possibility. If he can close a few more gaps in his swing, a legitimate MVP campaign might be on the horizon.