Old and New Stats: Checking 2022 Batting Stats for a Likely 2023 Mariners Lineup

Many of our players from the 2022 lineup have stayed for the 2023 season. Other players have joined us from other teams. We added two new players and now can look and see what we can learn.

Potential Lineup	Batting Average	# of Hits	# of Doubles	# of Triples	# of HRs	Runs Batted In	Walks	Strike outs
Kolten Wong (MIL)	.251	108	24	4* Most	15	47	46	88
Julio Rodriguez	.284 * Highest	145	25	3	28	75	40	145
Cal Raleigh	.211	78	20	1	27	63	38	122
Ty France	.274	151*Most	27	1	20	83	35	94
Eugenio Suarez	.236	128	24	2	31* Most	87* Most	73* Most	196 *Most
Jarred Kelenic	.141	23	5	1	7	17	16	61
J.P. Crawford	.243	126	24	3	6	42	68	80
Teoscar Hernandez (TOR)	.267	133	35* Most	1	25	77	34	152
Dylan Moore	.224	46	11	2	6	24	34	75
Lineup Avg.	.237	104	22	2	18	57	43	113

(These statistics come from the MLB website for the Mariners, Brewers, Blue Jays, and the MLB overall.)

I have a few thoughts about the statistics. First, our two new players both excelled in an area. Teoscar Hernandez had the greatest number of doubles. Kolten Wong had the highest number of triples. In addition, while Julio Rodriguez is clearly a star, last year several players shared top numbers. Ty France and Eugenio Suarez, in particular, stood out.

Seeing the numbers lined up gave me an aha! moment. The statistics that interest me the most are those for Eugenio Suarez. He had more RBI than any other player on our team and hit more home runs. At the same time, he has the most walks and strikeouts. Looking at the MLB as a whole, I noticed that there were several other players who had hit many home runs and also had many strikeouts. Kyle Schwarber had 46 homeruns. Aaron Judge came in seventh for the number of strikeouts he had. Perhaps, because these players are hard hitters, they go for all pitches with additional energy?

As far as walks go, the players with the highest number of walks in 2022 were Juan Soto and second, Aaron Judge. Eugenio's batting resembles stars like these. Kyle Schwarber, Alex Bregman, Freddie Freeman, and Joshua Bell are also in the top ten for walks. Whether they earn these walks because pitchers did not want to pitch to them or by avoiding balls that are outside of the strike zone, I do not know, but I am going to study it more.

While I never judged a player who struck out negatively, I think that many see a strikeout as defeat, a win by the pitcher. A walk can be seen as a plus or less than what a hit could have produced.

These are the top numbers from MLB in 2022.

Jeff McNeill of the Mets had the highest BA: .326.
Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers had the most hits with 199.
Freddie Freeman (Dodgers) also had the most doubles with 47.
Amed Rosario of Cleveland had the highest number of triples with 9.
(You already knew this) Aaron Judge of the Yankees had the most home runs with 62.
Aaron Judge also had the most runs batted in with 131, but he shared this number with Pete Alonso of the Mets.
Juan Soto (of the Pirates and then the Padres) had the highest number of walks with 135.
Kyle Schwarber of the Cubs had the highest number of strikeouts with 200, but he was closely followed by our own Eugenio Suarez.

Sometimes statistics are a bit dull, but other times they are quite enlightening. I would not have guessed that talented batters would have as many strikeouts, especially.

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