No team was more extreme than the San Francisco Giants in 2021.
At least Locked On Giants host Ben Kaspick doesn't think so. So many of their players show up unexpectedly among the leaders in important categories. Either that or they lead in categories fans might not immediately think of when talking about baseball numbers. Yes, the SF Giants were a team of extremes last year, all the way down to their MLB-best 107-55 record.
The poster boy might as well be Tyler Rogers. Among all pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched since 2019, Rogers is first in Barrel percentage, second in soft-hit percentage, third in HR/9, third in Zone percentage, eight in ERA and ground ball rate, and ninth in walk percentage. And he does it in such an unconventional way. He allows a ton of contact, but he's almost impossible to square up in the air. He was a big reason for the Giants' shocking success in 2021.
Some other examples include Tommy La Stella, who's among the very best in the game in strikeout-to-walk ratio. He's up there with Juan Soto and other elite hitters. He also makes more contact than almost anyone in baseball when he swings. José Álvarez—yes, José Álvarez, has had baseball's best fastball (per 100 thrown) since 2019, according to FanGraphs. No one throws more pitches in the strike zone than Jake McGee. No team threw a higher percentage of pitches in the zone than the Giants in 2021. Anthony DeSclafani's fastball was among the most valuable in baseball in 2021.
The Giants flew extremely under the radar coming into 2021. Projection systems had them as a below-.500 team, and they won 107 games. They did it by having lesser-known players end up near the top of key leaderboards, and by leading the league in some more under-the-radar categories. The league is zigging, and the Giants are zagging. And it's hard to argue with the extremely good results.
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