Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez are two of the most dangerous hitters in Major League Baseball — that much you (should) already know.
Betts enters 2019 off of an MVP season in which he hit .346 with 32 home runs and 80 RBI’s, while Martinez claimed a Silver Slugger after mashing 43 long balls to go with a .330 average and 130 RBI’s as the pair anchored the Boston Red Sox en route to a World Series title.
So even on the surface, it’s pretty easy to see the duo’s dominance just by a glance at the back of their baseball cards (or a quick Google search, because who uses baseball cards anymore?)
But a deeper dive into the numbers by MLB.com’s Andrew Simon shows just how vicious Martinez and Betts are at the plate. Simon broke down one “cool” stat about each Major League Baseball team.
Here’s what he had to say on Betts, Martinez and the Red Sox:
“Both Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez hit exactly 26.7 percent of their batted balls last season at least 95 mph (the threshold for hard contact) and in the launch angle “sweet spot” between 8 and 32 degrees. Only the Cardinals’ Matt Carpenter made this type of quality contact at a higher rate.”
So basically, out of the top three hitters in baseball who consistently make hard contact with an optimal launch angle, two of them play in Boston.
Embarking on the 2019 season, Red Sox fans can rest assured that just about one in every four balls that Betts and Martinez hit is going to be an absolute pea. We’ll take those odds.
