Back when the Brave acquired outfielder Matt Kemp, I opined that he wouldn't offer lineup protect to Freddie Freeman and, besides, Freeman didn't really protection anyway. Freeman already was having a pretty good (if unusually streaky) season and pitchers were throwing Freeman plenty of strikes. He just needed to hit more of them which, based on his talent and history, I expected he would do.
He's done it. While you've been fixated on college football, Freeman is finishing up what could end up being his best season hitting. He's making more frequent contact with pitches both inside and outside of the strike zone, and he's swinging at fewer pitches that aren't strikes, and so his production has improved.
All of that seems like a no-brainer and, in a way, it is. But it was obscured by Freeman’s relatively poor results with the more traditional statistics (though Freeman still was getting on base even during his slow start).
“Obviously I’ve been making more contact lately and that’s why my numbers have gone up,” Freeman said this week. “I’m not doing anything different than when I was slumping. I’m just actually hitting the ball. Early on in the season I was striking out a lot, and now I’m not.
“I’m not doing anything different. Nothing’s changed. I’m hitting it. There is no science to it. See it and hit it, and I’ve been doing it lately.”
On Aug. 1, the day before Kemp joined the lineup, Freeman’s Baseball Information Solutions ZContact% (contact on strikes) was 78.5, the worst mark of his career and ranking near the bottom of the league. Now it’s 79.1, a modest improvement that nonetheless makes a difference.
Freeman also has improved in his OContact% (contact on balls), from 59.8 on Aug. 1 to 60.4 now. Again, nothing dramatic but more contact adds up over hundreds of pitches.
Sometimes better contact doesn’t translate to better results but it has for Freeeman. I don’t think Kemp is the reason for this because, again, Freeman was already having a pretty good season before Kemp arrived. According to Baseball Info Solutions data, Freeman actually has seen a slightly lower percentage of strikes with Kemp in the lineup (41.2) than he did before (41.8).
Freeman is having a very good season because he’s making the same kind of quality contact he usually makes.
“I couldn’t tell you anything (that's different),” Freeman said. “I have the same approach every single game, every single at-bat. I’m not changing anything. All I’m trying to do is hit it a hard line drive up the middle.”
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