Last night saw Derek Dietrich go all out against the Pittsburgh Pirates. After the brawl that sort of wasn’t in Pittsburgh after Dietrich hit a home run into the river, then his hitting a home run on Monday and possibly offending someone in the Pirates dugout, there were questions about whether or not Pittsburgh would hit Derek Dietrich on Tuesday. They didn’t. Instead it was Derek Dietrich that hit the Pirates. And the dingers. He hit THREE dingers against the Pirates on Tuesday night.
Whether something happens later this afternoon, I guess we’ll all have to wait and see together. But for now, let’s talk about what it is that Derek Dietrich is doing.
If you watched the interview after the game from above, you’ll have already heard that Derek Dietrich has set a new career high in home runs for a season. It’s May 29th. He’s hit 17 home runs. That’s a pretty good pace, and it puts him in some rare company in team history.
Most recent Reds with 17+ HR in team's first 55 games
2019 Derek Dietrich 17
2006 Adam Dunn 17
2004 Adam Dunn 17
2003 Adam Dunn 18
1987 Eric Davis 20
1972 Johnny Bench 18
1970 Johnny Bench 18
1970 Tony Perez 20— Joel Luckhaupt (@jluckhaupt) May 29, 2019
Derek Dietrich has 17 home runs this season. He’s got 2 doubles and 1 triple. That ratio is almost unfathomable. Basically, if he’s hitting the ball in the air to the outfield, it’s either going over the fence or it’s being caught.
His OPS is currently sitting at 1.085 thanks to a .254/.364/.720 line in 140 plate appearances this season. He’s not qualified for the leaderboard when it comes to OPS, but if he were, he’d rank 4th in both the National League and Major League Baseball – trailing just Cody Bellinger, Christian Yelich, and Josh Bell.
He’s tied for third in baseball with his 17 home runs. Everyone else with at least 11 home runs in baseball has at least 135 at-bats this season. Derek Dietrich has 118. Dietrich is on pace for 50 home runs this season for the Reds based on his 17 through 55 team games. Going back to the number of doubles from above, assuming the same pace is kept there, he would shatter the record for fewest doubles in a season while also hitting 40+ home runs. In 1964 Harmon Killebrew had 11 doubles to go with 49 home runs.
Where did all of this power come from? Derek Dietrich has been an above-average hitter in the past. From 2015-2018 with the Marlins he posted an OPS+ of 114. The ballpark in Miami wasn’t exactly doing him any favors in terms of non-park adjusted numbers. At home he slugged just .385 in those four seasons. On the road he slugged .468. There’s an enormous difference between .468 and the insane .720 that he’s slugging this year. But Great American Ball Park helps some. He’s also still in his “peak” age frame, sitting at 29-years-old.
There’s not much to really explain what’s going on. It’s probably a lot of little things all coming together to make for a magic first two months. There’s some luck in play here. 17 home runs and 2 doubles simply doesn’t make sense. But here we are. One home run every 6.94 at-bats doesn’t make sense. Yet here we are. Getting into a more friendly home ballpark, and division with some friendly ballparks for hitters helps – but not this much. And yet, here we are.
Derek Dietrich is having a magical season. He’s killing the baseball right now. We’re all having fun watching it. There’s not much explaining what’s going on, but in his own words:
The Reds have let me be myself
And for now, it’s been joyous to watch.
What happens down the road (roster wise) when Scooter is healthy – who plays and where? How many years of control do the Reds have over Dietrich?
First base?
Last night on Twitter, Bill Lack wondered if Joey Votto was the new Wally Pipp..
Hmmmmm
If the Reds win their next game vs the Bucs and the Cardinals also lost their next game the Reds will jump to 3rd place in the NL Central. 🙂
Agree, 2B seem to be a dime a dozen and the Reds have drafted allot of infielders recently in Senzel, India, etc. The odd man out in all of this is Peraza because if you can hit they will find a place for you to play. Peraza is not hitting and Dietrich is and when Scooter returns they will give him every opportunity to win 2B back as they should. Dietrich will be the “super sub” and give starters a rest. Nice problem to have……….
I stand with Doug Gray and prefer the reds not sign these players to these contracts because its not fair to them. The reds are immoral franchise for paying these guys less that what they are worth (and ironically, more than anyone else was willing to pay them). All of you fans are scum for supporting this sad state of affairs.
The reds need to make a public apology for paying DD less that what he is producing. I demand a public apology.
Thanks for reading.
Is anyone considering the Justin Turner model to follow? Later developing/peaking after the traditional age 27 season? Multiple positions?
Am I wrong, or is Dietrich more flexible/better defensively than Scooter? IIRC the Scooter in the OF experiment didn’t work.
Still – they can likely get both on much lesser extensions than Turner, and it will be a sign of good FO action if they can do so with incentives to avoid loss of production due to injury. Ultimately, it’s a good problem to have, unlike so many of the problems of the past five years.
in the field
“Let me be myself” and “having fun”
Where are all the angry old people at saying he needs to lose the chain, stop watching home runs, and learn to play the game the right way??
Derek Dietrich is to the 2019 Pirates what Eric Thames was to the 2017 Reds.
Dietrich brings what this team has lacked and that he is an emotional guy.We need guys like him when its going good and even more when its going bad.Some will argue its just kid stuff with all the jumping around and hollering well it is but its really a bunch of men playing a kid’s game so why not.Its a good thing when he said he gets to be him and that goes a long way among players now a days.
What a willing buyer is willing to pay a willing seller is the definition of market value. Perhaps that was never mentioned in the economics classes some posters may or may not have taken.
Even housing evaluations in every jurisdiction in which we have ever bought or sold, sets the market value for tax purposes at the sale price when a home is bought/sold. Dallas Keuchel, Craig Kimbrell, among others are simply not worth what they are asking because there is no buyer willing to pay that price.