It has been nearly 2 full months since I wrote about Spencer Torkelson (which you can read here) and all the data that I gathered for that. He has since hit 9 HRs, has a wRC+ of 118 and a wOBA of .339 — all pretty good for him. But despite that, he seems to underperforming his expected stats.

Spencer Torkelson Data

That’s where my buddy Mark Gorosh (@sportz5176) comes into play. The conversation started out with him asking what the league had done as far as batting average and slugging for ball hit 95+ MPH on the ground and line drives, and the same data but only for Torkelson. From there, he asked about 100+ MPH. Let me share with you that data:

Eventually we talked about another point of interest here: the direction of his flyballs. More specifically the damage he was doing to balls being pulled in the air vs going straightaway/opposite field. But I also wanted to expand upon that. I wanted to see all batted ball types by location. Let’s check out this data as well.

Looking at this I wasn’t too surprised by the results. What I wasn’t expecting was just how bad some of it truly is. What surprised me the most was the discrepancy between Torkelson and the league in FB oppo/straight. 400 point difference in OPS, 160 point difference in wOBA. Overall though, we know that Torkelson struggles when he doesn’t pull the ball and when he puts it on the ground. Again — I think this is information that we all assumed and figured.

A quick note from the above chart: there is only one category  that he is better than league average in and that’s flyballs to the pull field. As a matter of fact in his career, 16 of his 20 HRs have come to the pull field and 63.6% of his XBH in general were in the pull field. I don’t think there can be enough emphasis in chanting: Tork. Pull. The. Ball. 

Knowing this, let’s look at some flyball percentages.

So. What we see here is that Torkelson is above league average in flyball rate as well as pulling flyballs. Let’s adjust this slightly more. Let’s look at the same data, but since 6/1 for Spencer.

That would certainly help explain the burst of power with his 8 HRs, the .254 ISO, the .320 wOBA we have seen in that time frame. He is not only hitting the ball in the air more, which he needed to do, he’s also pulling it more, which he also needs to do more of. And these stats include a 3-for-33 stretch in there with 12 Ks. 

Not only this — his Sweet Spot rate has improved in this time. 36.7% in the months of June/July vs 33.3% through May. Even more impressive — flyballs that are in the sweet spot is at 48.3% in June/July vs 26.2% through May! 

Changes

With all of that said, what’s changed? I had a discussion with him on that as well! I want to show two screenshots here:

The first one is a ground out against a changeup that was low and away earlier this season, and the second is the HR he hit against Texas in the 8th inning; also a changeup low and away. I noticed his body angle looked different between the two. For the groundout to me, he appears to be leaned back, some maybe putting him off balance some or not able to connect with the ball, whereas the HR he looks solid and sturdy. That’s when Mark used the term “attack angle” which I have heard several times. I know of it, I know the basis of it, I hadn’t really entirely realized visually what that meant. Until now. He has made an adjustment to his attack angle and now suddenly he’s pulling the ball in the air — which, again, is what we all want him to do!

Just in case I haven’t mentioned it, Spencer really needs to pull the ball in the air. 

Conclusion

This was a really fun piece to do. Some surprises (really, terrible with flyballs that aren’t pulled). Some non-surprises (he shouldn’t hit the ball on the ground).  Mark was tremendously helpful there, and I appreciate all of his input and help with this. And with a seemingly different attack angle, I think we might be in for some good, fun baseball from Spencer Torkelson to finish the year. 

Photo Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports