ASTROS: BREGMAN FINDS PLATE PATIENCE A WALK IN THE PARK.
27 walks show 3B’s reluctance to chase pitches outside zone
ANAHEIM, Calif. — To lead off the inning that would separate his team from a division rival, Alex Bregman watched five pitches. He swings at just 37 percent of the pitches he sees — the fewest of any Astros hitter — so the act itself isn’t that foreign.
Behind in the count 1-0, Rangers lefthander Matt Moore offered a changeup. It sailed down in the zone. Bregman kept the bat on his shoulders.
“If a lefthanded pitcher throws me a 1-0 or 2-0 changeup, I’m spitting on it,” Bregman said Monday, “because it’s a borderline pitch, and I’m working my way to getting the fastball over the middle.”
Two fastballs arrived soon after. Both were tantalizingly close to the strike zone. Bregman, again, did not offer. The fivepitch walk — his team-leading 27th of the season — started a three-run third inning in Sunday’s 6-1 series-clinching win against the Rangers.
Bregman enjoys a 14.9 walk percentage. After walking just 55 times in 626 plate appearances last season, the Astros’ thirdyear third baseman has already drawn 27 bases on balls in his first 181.
“My swing decision rate, I personally feel, should be elite,” Bregman said. “It should be at the top of the game, and right now, it is. It’s up there with Joey Votto for the tops in all of baseball. One thing that I’ve wanted to do a better job of this year is swing at better pitches, making them throw and making them have to come in the zone.”
Bregman’s O-swing percentage — the number of pitches outside the strike zone he swings at — is just 18.9 percent. Only five major leaguers, including Votto, have lower rates. His patience couples with that aforementioned low swing propensity to form an on-base fiend.
He swings and misses on just 5 percent of his hacks, too.
“My biggest thing is that I don’t swing and miss,” Bregman said. “When I swing, I want it to be at a good pitch to hit and not a borderline pitch. I’m going to wait until teams throw it over the middle of the plate. That way, I know when I swing I’m going to make contact, make contact at a high rate and hard contact.”
Even with leadoff hitter George Springer back from his elbow bruise, Bregman — who entered Monday with a .387 onbase percentage — remained in the two-hole for Monday’s series opener against the Angels. He began the season there frequently, but as a slump plagued his beginning, he was moved lower in favor of Jose Altuve.
“He’s getting on base at such a high rate right now; his plate discipline has been exceptional,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “If he’s going to get on base in front of Jose and Carlos (Correa), great. If he’s going to drive in runs, I need to have him behind those guys. Just mixing it up a little bit.”
Bregman’s transformation is twofold. Sure, he’s reaping the rewards of a full year of major league plate appearances and making the adjustments he needed to make.
More than that, though, Hinch credited a somewhat more subdued, compartmentalized approach in magnified atbats. “He’s getting better at not letting the moment or the importance of the moment create too much anxiety or energy for him during the at-bat,” Hinch said. “He’s been more disciplined in some key at-bats — whether it’s with a runner in scoring position, whether it’s leading off an inning. The more important the at-bat is, the more he’s been locked in, as opposed to some general youthful energy and excitement that comes with guys when they first get to the big leagues.”
Bregman is no stranger to big moments. He got perhaps the most important base hit in franchise history to end Game 5 of the World Series last season. He also hit two Series home runs.
He wants to continue such production in a game’s biggest moments, but now, it won’t come at a cost of a pitch he doesn’t want or chasing a wasted offering — especially occupying his current spot in the lineup.
“If teams are going to continue to throw me balls out of the zone, I’m going to continue to take them and take the walks in front of Correa and Altuve,” Bregman said. “See how that works out for them.”
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