Parker Meadows on the Upswing

Parker Meadows had a really good season.

Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows I enjoy looking at data. I’m a huge fan of numbers and trying to interpret those numbers to help complete analysis for a player. So, while sifting through the data I gathered for my previous post of walks/strikeouts, I decided to see where Meadows fit into a plot that I created a bit ago:

This plot shows how he has done with both home runs and extra-base power, as well as how he has done with his BB/K. He performed well in his time in Erie, while also being a hair under 23 in a league where the average age is 23.8. Not super young, but still younger than average.

Parker Meadows Stats

Parker spent most of his time this past season in Double-A Erie, logging 489 of his 556 plate appearances there, with the other 67 in High-A West Michigan. Between the two levels he was only 3 stolen bases shy of a 20/20 season, and he was one of two Erie batters with above-average walk rates and below-average strikeout rates. Using the same PA threshold (100) as I had previously, here are Parker’s stats and where he ranked within the Eastern League out of 205 hitters:

When looking at his game log, I noticed he went on a 13-game streak without a walk from May 19th to June 6th. Knowing he posted a good walk rate overall, I wondered if he made some sort of change after that walk drought. I wondered what his numbers looked like in Double-A up to June 5th, and then his numbers after June 5th:

It certainly seems as though a change took place, as those are drastically different sets of stats.

Batted ball changes

To help with the changes in the above data, Parker Meadows needed to decrease his ground balls. He saw his line drive rate rise from 16.0% in 2021 to 21.5% in 2022 while keeping his fly ball rate nearly identical.

On top of that, he stopped sending the ball the opposite way as much, decreasing it by 5.1% while going straightaway nearly 6% more often. Ideally some of that would have turned into more pulled balls, allowing him to tap into more power, but perhaps that’s the next step of his development.

Swing changes

Taking a look at his swing from 2021:

And again in 2022:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvemDhBXcrk&start=54

Some parts of his swing stand out to me. The most obvious is he’s much quieter in 2022 than he was in 2021. In the West Michigan video we can see his bat waving some off his shoulder and his leg lifting off the ground periodically while he waits for the pitch. With Erie the bat is on his shoulder and his leg is motionless until the pitcher begins his wind up.

In the past Meadows’ front foot was in motion before the pitcher planted his front foot. In the second video the pitcher’s arm has just released the ball when Meadows’ foot begins to move.

And again for the step — likely because he was stepping so early, he wasn’t truly planting his foot initially. It looked as though he was balancing on his toes up until his hips were in motion. In Erie, he plants and moves his hips immediately with no toe balancing and pause there.

Final thoughts

Every now and then it’s the little, sometimes obvious, things that need to change. Perhaps quieting his swing and stepping slightly later has helped Meadows see the ball better, letting him make more contact. His on-base percentage in Erie last year topped his OBP by at least 60 points in any other stop where he was able to make 400+ PA. His slugging percentage was at least 130 points higher. For that matter, his OBP last year topped his previous best SLG.

It doesn’t seem likely Parker Meadows will be hitting 25-30 home runs in the big leagues. But if he can stick with the changes he’s made and continue to improve, he could be a key part of the Detroit Tigers future.