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It’s Thursday, Athletics Nation!
Last Tuesday, Jonah Bride took his first steps on major league grass as the A’s took on the Red Sox at Fenway Park. While his first game was quiet at the plate, since then Bride has been a much needed fresh face in the lineup. Across the next six games, Jonah earned at least one hit per game, staying above a .300 average for the following week.
Things are still a bit uneven after a week in the bigs, as Bride has nearly exclusively hit singles so far. One double in the weekend series against the Royals was the only extra-base knock. In fact, despite a fairly constant rate of hitting his way to first, Jonah has yet to earn an RBI, nor to be pushed around score. But that is a lot more emblematic of the A’s overall poor hitting and inability to fill the bases than it is of Bride’s talents.
What is also peculiar when looking though Bride’s game stats is how unpopulated the strikeout and walks columns are. Bride swung through his second strikeout last night, and so far he has only drawn one base on balls. Digging into Jonah’s Statcast data on Baseball Savant, the game logs show that he overwhelmingly puts the ball in play. Of his 25 plate appearances before last night’s game, over half ended as outs on the field.
This means two things are true: Bride is making a lot of contact, and that contact isn’t often quality. Bride’s batted ball profile so far confirms this — while he has a high contact percentage that’s nearly triple the MLB average at 13%, Jonah also has topped over half the pitches he’s made contact with. That leads to a lot of batted balls getting hit sharply into the ground in front of home plate, and a lot less making it out of the infield. If Bride can adjust his swing to turn those spiked balls into barrels, we could start seeing numbers closer to Jonah’s performance in Midland and Vegas.
A’s Coverage
- Hall: Game #70: A’s routed by Mariners in 9-0 shutout
- Gallegos: A’s hope arrivals of Allen, Bride predict bright future
- Kawahara: Why A’s starter James Kaprielian’s ‘best outing’ is something he can build on ($)
- Briderman: The A’s next fire sale should include owner John Fisher
- Buel: Oaklanders Frustrated Over A’s Owner
- Reuters: Young players in spotlight as Mariners meet A’s
MLB News & Interest
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- Nesbitt: Meet the 6-year-old Astros fan who tried to ‘steal’ second ($)
- Today in Baseball History
Best of Twitter
Is this a record for earliest ejection?
Last night, the Blue Jays/White Sox game was the worst umpired game all year.
— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) June 22, 2022
Today, the Blue Jays hitting coach brought out the lineup card and got ejected before the game even started.
pic.twitter.com/pgfaVSI9tc
Environmental notes from BCDC on Howard Terminal
BCDC’s analysis for Howard Terminal includes environmental justice.
— Vitamin Dee (@2Legit2QuitDee) June 22, 2022
Some key points:
-Many vulnerable groups are w/in a mile of Port.
-City's Final EIR does conclude that localized truck-related activities would *not* move closer to nearby residents
1/2 pic.twitter.com/TTG0LRaDQO
A’s sitting firmly in the almost-30 club for now
The average age of MLB Teams. Cleveland does such a good job in young talent. The future is definitely bright for the Guardians. #Guardians pic.twitter.com/m6CcyjZf37
— David Hrusovsky Sports (@davehrus) June 22, 2022
A lovely gesture from the A’s
Juanaeh Newton (in the hat) was at an event an Oakland public school where some of the A’s players stopped by recently — he lost his mom a couple months ago. Our own Greg Korn knew there was something special about him and wanted to make his day ❤️ pic.twitter.com/KYIii6htZP
— Jessica Kleinschmidt (@KleinschmidtJD) June 23, 2022
Nothing beats a summer night at the park
Beautiful Baseball Sky at the Coliseum #Athletics #RootedInOakland #DrumTogether pic.twitter.com/TN0UHnZaZM
— Will MacNeil (@RFWill149) June 23, 2022
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