After watching 2 Divisional Series games I swore that I would only watch MLB post season games on mute. I really tried for for the rest of the Divisional Series games. As much as I like to rip on the (terrible, awful, nonsensical) announcing of Buck, McCarver et al, I couldn’t do it.

I missed the crowd. I missed the absurd chants. I missed hearing the crack of the bat, the on field banter, and the occasional F-bomb, usually courtesy of Nyjer Morgan. However, after listening to the sounds of The Wonder Years, The Dangerous Summer, The Startling Line and many others bands, I had to go back to the sound of the game. Call me weak if you want, I couldn’t stay away. Maybe on some level I even missed the absurd banter between McCarver and Buck.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for the drama. That would explain all of my previous women!

*Rimshot*

Any who, long story short (too late, I know), I listened to every World Series game¹. And maybe it was lowered expectations, but I actually found McCarver insightful on two points:

–Ian Kinsler is a pull hitter
–David Freese is an opposite field hitter

Of course I’m not naive enough to take anything that McCarver says at face value, so I had to look up the numbers for myself. And honestly, I love any reason to look up players splits on FanGraphs.

¹Well, ok, I took an hour or two off to watch Community and Parks & Rec, because come on, they’re amazing. In fact, if you don’t like those shows, then I have serious doubts to whether or not you know anything about anything. In other words, you’d be another Buck or McCarver to me.

Observe the table below. It’s the career splits for Balls In Play for Kinsler and Freese, broken down by where the ball went and the result of the BIP.

Kinsler	PA	AVG	SLG	wOBA
Pull	1,233	.371	.758	.471
Center	854	.314	.407	.310
Opposite	559	.220	.290	.218

Freese	PA	AVG	SLG	wOBA
Pull	154	.351	.461	.354
Center	162	.365	.497	.371
Opposite	155	.453	.727	.502

Wow. Kinsler rakes when he pulls the ball. I didn’t think he’d become 1956 Ted Williams (also a .471 wOBA). Crazy.  Now remember, this is ONLY Balls In Play data. Kinsler’s career  is at .364 wOBA  and Freese holds a .346 wOBA, in a much smaller sample size of course.

The two most shocking things here are is that Freese turns into 2003 Barry Bonds (.506 wOBA) when he goes oppo. Let that sink in for a moment… Maybe we’ll see pitchers begin to pound him inside, where he has a much worse ability to pull the ball. Either way, I would not pitch Freese on the outer half much. You’re playing with fire at that point.

Even with the realization of how great Freese is when he goes oppo, hands down the single craziest thing is that McCarver was right.