Moreland's average exit velocity was 89 miles per hour, which is in the 86th percentile. His flyballs and line drives were 95 miles per hour, on average, in the 88th percentile. His average home run traveled 411 feet — 90th percentile — a few inches ahead of Mike Trout and one foot behind Aaron Judge. He "barreled" the ball on 12% of his batted ball events (92nd percentile) and 8.2% of plate appearances (95th percentile, in the middle of Trout, Goldschmidt, Machado, and Gary Sanchez).
Flyball distance data is no longer available via
baseballheatmaps.com, but with some help from the
Wayback Machine I found that Moreland's average flyball distance placed in the 89th percentile in
2016 (302.86') and 86th percentile in
2015 (297.36') — likewise, in either case, surrounded by a litany of star sluggers.
Moreland had zero "
lucky" home runs, according to ESPN's home run tracker, but was tied for 15th in "
no-doubters." (The player with the 15th-most home runs last season hit 36.) He had seven "
just enoughs," which is about average. Devers had 6, J.D. Martinez 12, and Jay Bruce 18.
In a league that posted its lowest
groundball-to-flyball ratio since 2010,
Moreland's GB/FB was actually higher than career norms. He posted career highs in walk rate and Oppo%, his lowest strikeout rate since 2012, and cut his popouts in half. Despite this, his .278 BABIP was markedly below average. His "
xBABIP," as formulated by
FanGraphs, was .308.
Interestingly, he
saw the seventh-fewest fastballs and second-fewest sliders among first basemen, as well as the fifth-most changeups and sixth-most curveballs. For his career, he's hit changeups at a
112 wRC+ clip, but in the past two seasons (during which time he's faced the 16th-fewest fastballs of 131 qualified hitters) he's at 56 and 55 wRC+ against changeups, respectively. His career 54 wRC+ against curveballs is, in all likelihood,
the hole in his offensive profile.
Prior to injuring a toe on June 13 (and subsequently a knee in compensating for that toe), Moreland
had a 128 wRC+ and elite 46% hard contact rate. And let us
not forget his career 999 ERA+.
This is why I don't play fantasy baseball. If I did, though, I think I'd rather have Moreland than Hosmer.