Freddie Freeman said late in the 2016 season, the Braves’ last at Turner Field, that he was hopeful — and had been assured — that the new home field, SunTrust Park, would be more hitter-friendly despite dimensions that weren’t significantly different than the old place, other than the shorter right-field power alley.
It took only one workout and a game or two for Freeman and other Braves to be convinced the new place was far more conducive to hitting. But still, no one, including Freeman, could have predicted the numbers being produced early by the Braves first baseman.
He’s crushing baseballs regardless of venue, but at SunTrust Park Freeman has been off-the-charts productive. As in, the best home hitter in the majors in nearly every category entering Wednesday,
Freeman, who homered again Tuesday in a home win against the Mets, entered Wednesday batting .481 (13-for-27) with a .622 OBP, 1.074 slugging percentage and 1.696 OPS in nine games at SunTrust Park. With eight extra-base hits including four homers. Just ridiculous stats.
“I’m waiting for (Freeman) to hit one over the whole thing,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said, gesturing toward the three-story structure where the Chop House is located beyond right field at SunTrust Park. (Freeman’s homer Tuesday landed on the third level.) “Strong man. He gets that bat going, boy … wow.”
If Freeman had two more home plate appearances before Wednesday he would officially lead the majors in home batting average, OBP and slugging percentage, as the home leaders heading into Wednesday were .455 average (Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez), .527 OBP (Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt), 1.045 slugging percentage (Yankees’ Aaron Judge) and 1.563 OPS (Judge).
But the Braves had played nine home games — at least two fewer than every other team — and Freeman’s there were 181 major league hitters with more home plate appearances than Freeman’s 37, including five players with at least 70.
Judge had nine homers and a slugging percentage over 1.000 at Yankee Stadium before Wednesday, yet Freeman’s home OPS was more than 100 points higher than Yankees behemoth slugger’s home OPS before Wednesday.
That’s how good Freeman has been.
On the road, the Braves first baseman has hit .325/.425/.698 with six homers in 16 games — terrific numbers dwarfed by his early output at SunTrust Park.
Freeman had one of the best Aprils ever produced by an Atlanta Braves hitter, and two games into May he was ranked second in the majors in OPS (1.302) between a pair of Nationals, the rejuvenated Ryan Zimmerman (1.326) and Bryce Harper (1.270). Judge (1.219) was the only American League player among the top five in OPS, and Judge leads the majors in homers with 12 before Wednesday.
Not only did Freeman finish behind Zimmerman for NL Player of the Month in April, but the Braves slugger will have to contend with Zimmerman and Eric Thames in voting for the NL All-Star team’s starting first baseman, not to mention first basemen such as Joey Votto (nine homers, 22 RBIs, .938 OPS), Wil Myers (nine homers 21 RBIs, .590 slugging), Mark Reynolds (.968 OPS, .606 slugging, eight homers, 23 RBIs) and Paul Goldschmidt (.969 OPS),
Freeman’s .811 slugging percentage and .491 OBP were ranked second in the majors before Wednesday, behind one of the Nationals in each category: Zimmerman (.871) in slugging percentage and Harper (.513) in OBP. Freeman’s .378 batting average was fifth in the majors.
It said plenty about Freeman that, despite playing home games in a pitcher-friendly ballpark before this season, he was statistically the best hitter in the majors over the past 365 days before Wednesday. In that span, he led the majors (minimum 200 plate appearances) in OPS (1.048) ahead of Mike Trout (1.030) and Votto (1.030). Freeman led in extra-base hits (92) and slugging percentage (.629) and was ninth average (.320) and third in OBP (.430) in that period.
“Good God, it’d be nice to be in that body and feel how that feels,” Snitker said, when asked about Freeman’s year-long tear. “And they’ve got to pitch to him, because that guy behind him (Matt Kemp) can hurt them just as bad.”
In that 365-day stretch Freeman was fifth in the majors in homers (41), tied for eighth in walks (94) and 16th in strikeouts (161). His 18 intentional walks were second behind Harper (21) and ahead of Miguel Cabrera (15) and Trout (14).
