Ain't Witt Fun?
Perusing some ways to appreciate Bobby's 2024 season even more.
Let’s talk Bobby Bob Bob.
The Royals’ superstar shortstop has been on an absolute heater for more than a year now, vaulting himself into the stratosphere and the national MVP conversation. He put on a show in the Home Run Derby and racked up more hits in the month of July (44) than some guys will collect in half a season, and that’s only a slight exaggeration.1 He won the AL Player of the Month last month, and he’s off to a torrid start in August as well. Every night he’s doing one or two or six things you’ve rarely seen a baseball player do, and he’s doing it all for literally the Kansas City Royals.
How neat is that?
We are witnessing historical greatness, and we get to continue witnessing it, night after night. Watching Bobby Witt Jr. play baseball should be at the top of any baseball fan’s to-do list, and that is not something said about Kansas City athletes on this side of the Truman Sports Complex.
People are running out of adjectives to describe Witt’s play, so I thought instead, I’d use his statistics and maybe some pictures to take a crack at it. And make no mistake, he is putting up some truly hilarious statistics. Me being a fan of numbers that are fun, I thought I would share some of my favorite Witt stats that have gotten at least a solid chuckle out of me lately. All stats are through play on August 7.
Heeeeeerrrre’s Bobby:
In disadvantageous counts
In 0-2 counts (52 PA), Bobby has a line of .286/.308/.469. His .777 OPS is 196 percent better than the league average in 0-2 counts.
In 98 PA ending after an 0-2 count, he’s hit .275/.306/.462. So even after Bobby gets into the worst count possible, he still has a higher OPS (.768) than the league average in all counts (.713).
He has 22 extra-base hits in two-strike counts in 2024, tied for the sixth-most in MLB. His 60 total hits in two-strike counts trails only Jose Ramirez.
Bobby has seen 491 pitches in two-strike counts this season (80th-most). In those situations, he has a .266 average (4th-highest). His slugging percentage (.423) is fifth-highest. He and Ramirez are the only two batters in baseball to rank in the top five of both categories.
His numbers and expected numbers when he’s behind in the count look better than a lot of dudes in hitters’ counts:
AVG: .303 (5th)
xAVG: .297 (2nd)
SLG: .526 (7th)
xSLG: .542 (3rd)
This post is more about 2024, but if you include 2023, no batter in baseball has more extra-base hits while behind in the count (44) than Bobby Bob Bob.
Against various pitching approaches
Bobby has 31 extra-base hits on pitches in the Statcast shadow zone, more than any other player in baseball. His batter run value in the shadow zone (19) is higher than every other player in baseball. To clarify: on locations best-described as pitcher’s pitches, Witt is more dangerous than every other player in baseball.
On pitches out of the strike zone, Bobby is hitting .315 with a .456(!) slugging percentage. Of the 114 players who have seen 1,500 pitches this year, 85 of them have a lower batting average against pitches inside the strike zone. 30 of them have a lower slugging percentage on those pitches.
Oh and when the pitch is in the strike zone, he has the second-highest batting average and sixth-highest slugging percentage.
His run value ranks against different pitch types:
5th against fastballs.
T-13th against offspeed.
2nd against breaking balls.
So, the message to pitchers:
As a shortstop
Witt has 65 extra-base hits in 2024, already the 26th-highest total for a shortstop since 2008. He’s only 20 away from tying 2019 Xander Bogaerts for the most in that timeframe.
His .349 average is the highest for any shortstop since 2008 (min. 450 AB as SS). The closest is Hanley Ramirez’s .342 in 2009, when Bobby was in third grade.
Keeping the 450 AB minimum, Witt’s .606 slugging percentage is the best by any shortstop since 2008.
Looking at qualified batters who were primarily shortstops, Bobby’s 171 wRC+ is the second-best of the live ball era, going back to 1920. Only Arky Vaughan in 1935 has him beat.
In that same timeframe, his 8.1 WAR (per FanGraphs) is the 19th-best total for a shortstop. He has more than 40 games to add to his total.
As a Royal
Bobby’s 8.1 WAR is the best season by a Royals shortstop, ever. (It’s August 9th.) The closest anyone has gotten to him is his own 2023 season (5.9). He is almost a lock to best George Brett’s 1980 season (9.1 WAR), the current best in Royals history, regardless of position.
His 171 wRC+ is the second-highest by a Royal, ever, trailing only Brett in 1980 (198).
There have been 283 qualified batting seasons in Royals history. Witt’s 162 hits is the 86th-highest total. He’s only played 116 games. The only player with more hits in a similar number of games is that Brett guy in 1980.
Bobby’s next run scored will be his 100th, becoming the 27th Royal to reach that mark. As mentioned, there are more than 40 games remaining. If he maintains his current pace, he’ll end with 138 runs, which would be the highest total in team history.
He’s almost certainly going to have the 11th season of both 100 or more runs scored AND 100 or more runs batted in since the Royals became a franchise in 1969.
With an OPS of 1.000, Witt currently ranks second, once again behind that 1980 season. However, Brett ended the year with a 1.118 OPS after 515 PA. Bobby will collect his 516th PA before the Cardinals series ends on Saturday.
How about some pictures?
LOL. And might I add, LMAO.
There is basically one spot you can pitch him without getting rocked, but if you miss by a couple of inches, you’re getting rocked. If I were an opposing pitcher facing Bobby, I would simply walk out of the stadium and retire to the woods somewhere.
This was when he scored from first on a single to left field, and you should read that again.
This one might be my favorite. Witt’s hard hit rate, when looked at on a rolling basis of 100 batted balls (a not-insignificant amount of time), is so far above the MLB average that the chart doesn’t even bother putting the red line.
This is what Bobby Bob Bob has become in his third big-league season. An outlier who breaks charts, while playing some of the best defense in baseball, and running faster than anyone in baseball. His plate appearances are must-see television. He’s got the Royals in position to make the playoffs for the first time in nine years, and the way his second half is going, it might not be as a Wild Card.
He is an absolute joy to watch, and Kansas City gets to watch him for many years to come.
Enjoy this.
The Pirates Jack Suwinski had just 41 hits in the first half, however his 264 PA were not enough to qualify for leaderboards. HOWEVER, those hits occurred in 82 games played, which is technically closer to a half of a season than the actual first half.