Collette Calls: Who Am I?

It only took three months, but my draft season is finally completed. My final league, an 11-team AL-Only auction, drafted on April 14 due to student holidays and someone being on their honeymoon the previous weekend. I do not mind drafting late because it helps you avoid paying big dollars for players who get hurt early, which currently plagues my AL Tout Wars team. What I do not care for is losing the advantage of doing the offseason homework and identifying potential breakout candidates only to watch them roar out of the gate and see their draft-day value skyrocket.

I have already complained about writing in short sample-size season in April and how few stats are worth writing about this time of the season. Early velocity readings, either via a pitcher's arm or a hitter's bat, are useful but you have to expand the sample size to get better readings on batters. What I would prefer to do this week is play another round of Who Am I?

The format of this game is simple: I present some facts about an anonymous player and let you make your guesses about who the player is before clicking on the Who Am I link to see who the player is. Let's see how you do (All data is as of the start of play April 16).

Player 1

The first thing you should notice is this player's 50 batted ball rolling average for his exit velocity:

Notice the upward trend on that graph above. My average exit velocity in 2018 is higher than Stohei Ohtani's. I have seven homers in 316 major league plate appearances and have already been demoted in 2018 while struggling to find consistent at-bats for my surprising ball club. Despite this hidden talent, I am still not on a roster in the 15-team mixed LABR league, though I was a backup bid for at least one team last weekend. Who Am I?

Player 2

I really hit the crap out of the baseball in the first half of last season and parlayed it into an appearance in the midsummer classic. I began to cool off in July and then really tailed off in the second half until a late spike in the season before dropping right back down into the valley near the end of the season. I had a surprising change of location this winter and have once again surged out of the gate at the plate. I have halved my strikeout rate from last season so far and am already half way to my 2017 stolen base total from last season. I even have a positive defensive rating this season for the first time in my six year major league career. Who Am I?

Player 3:

I was out of my mind early in 2017, surprising everyone who let me drop to the late rounds in the March drafts. I struggled through the summer but picked it up late as my team made its sprint to the postseason. My 2018 walk rate and strikeout rate are right in line with the past few seasons, but the results just are not there yet despite me making quality contact. Check out my graph below:

The league-wide weighted on-base average for batted balls classified as solid contact and barrels is .931. My reward for my contact in that range is .283. The .143 BABIP is the least of my problems because I am making good contact. My overall .195 wOBA is 133 points below my .328 expected weighted on-base average. While .328 is still not great, it is usable in league formats whereas my current numbers are tough to roster in any format. I am, unlike many moments in my career, not injured. I am what you call a buying opportunity. Who Am I?

Player 4

I have struck out in nearly half of my 2018 plate appearances. I have never been a very good contact hitter, but I am well above my career rate of 35 percent. I am doing myself no favors by continuing to expand my zone and swing and pitches I should be laying off:

I am possibly trying out for the next iteration of the "Major League" movie as Jobu's son. The fastball, I hit very very good as I have hit .310/.394/.655 against hard stuff this year. Everything else, not so good. I have seen 74 non-fastballs this year and have one hit off those pitches. I hit 53 homers the last two seasons despite not reaching 500 plate appearances in either season, and despite my early season struggles with contact, I am still batting .250 on this young season thanks to a .467 BABIP. Who Am I?

Player 5

They often talk about players in a zone. If you look at my plate discipline numbers, I am one of those players now. I have seen 242 pitches in the strike zone this season and have swung at 76 while missing just two. I have steadily improved my contact rate within the strike zone each of the last four seasons, but this year is off to a ridiculous start, as is my overall offensive production:

I am already 20 percent of the way to my 2017 home run total this year and walking three times as often as I am striking out through 65 plate appearances this season. These are numbers worthy of being knighted as a possible MVP candidate this season. Who Am I?

Pitcher 1

I am rather unhittable this season. I have struck out nearly two-thirds of the batters I have faced. Thirty-four batters have come to the plate against me in the later innings, and 22 have walked back to the dugout wondering what the hell just happened up there. I do not mean to brag, I do not mean to boast, but look at my year over year strikeout rate while you put hot butter on your breakfast toast.

I am pretty much a two-pitch guy, but because I could not control one of my pitches last year, the other one was not as effective. This year, I'm throwing my secondary pitch a majority of the time – upward of 60 percent. I have an 18 percent swinging-strike rate with the pitch, and the league has only made contact with fewer than half of the 94 I have thrown. I am a member of a deep bullpen, so while my numbers scream "CLOSER!," the opportunity is not there for me. Meanwhile, I will just sit back and do what Brandon Morrow and Chris Devenski did last year and pile up value in middle relief. As it were, my 22 strikeouts in a relief role put me in the top 30 leaderboard for strikeouts for all pitchers. Who Am I?

Pitcher 2:

It has not been a good start to the season for me. I have only pitched 15 innings over three starts, and my ERA is nearly 6.00 thanks to four homers allowed around 25 baserunners. I showed signs of turning things around in the second half last season, but I have given it all back and then some out of the gate. What is worse is that I am not exactly unlucky as my BABIP is .318, my LOB% is 72 percent, and StatCast data says I could be doing even worse based on the batted ball data.

The other issue is my velocity. The graph below should scare you as much as it scares me:

I have lost nearly three miles an hour off my fastball from last season, and my secondary pitch has suffered at the same rate. I have still been able to strike out 15 batters in those 15 innings despite the loss of velocity, but I was risky when I threw 95. Now that I'm throwing 92, my name should not make me undroppable. It seems like a matter of time before something comes up sore, because velocity drops like this do not come out of nowhere. Who Am I?

How did you do on the 20-80 scouting scale?

80 (7 for 7): You're a five-tool evaluator!
70 (6 for 7): You're one skill away from being a guru
60 (5 for 7): You have a starting role on the analysis roster
50 (4 for 7): Congrats, you made the team. We could use your skills
40 (3 for 7): There simply wasn't enough spots on the roster. Keep your head up
30 (2 for 7): This is the toughest job a manager has to do
20 (1 for 7): Have you considered coaching?