Fun with Cubs Numbers: Perusing Statcast’s Top Performers Leaderboard
I ran the first installment of this column a little over a week ago to a pretty strong positive response, so it felt like time to bring it back with the Cubs playing on Friday night instead of the afternoon. Inspired by a serendipitous stumble onto Statcast’s Top Performers Leaderboard, I felt compelled to comb through all 70 categories to see whether and where Cubs players could be found. With that in mind, let’s get into it.
This was not supposed to be about one player in particular, but you’ll quickly see that someone stood out.
7
Pete Crow-Armstrong‘s fielding run value and outs above average, both best in MLB among all positions. He’s been getting a lot of love, deservedly so, for his batting of late, but PCA’s calling card has been and forever will be his glove. He’s so good that he recently made a play with a mere 10% catch probability look routine. And the best part is that he’s still getting better at just 23 years old.
4.8
PCA’s outfield jump distance in feet, second in MLB behind Boston’s Ceddanne Rafaela.
3.74
PCA’s 90-foot running split in second, behind only Tampa’s Chandler Simpson (3.69) and St. Louis’s Victor Scott II (3.71).
3
PCA’s baserunning runs, tied with Corbin Carroll and Byron Buxton for tops in MLB.
2
PCA’s basestealing runs, tied with three others for best in baseball. This ends the Crow-Armstrong portion of our presentation, and I must note that I didn’t cherry-pick these numbers. As of this post, he is the only Cub to appear in any of the 25 offensive and defensive categories listed on Baseball Savant.
20.0%
We now enPorter Hodge’s hard-hit percentage, second in MLB to only Pittsburgh’s Caleb Ferguson (18.2). Third is former Cub Mark Leiter Jr. (21.4), who is on pace to have the best season of his career by a wide margin. Interestingly enough, his splitter has nothing to do with it. What had been his signature pitch with the Cubs has become his worst pitch, but he has drastically increased the velocity on his unconventional sinker (93.8 mph) while generating 3-4 more inches of ride than before.
2,589
The average spin on Ryan Pressly‘s four-seam, putting him fifth in MLB. The difference between all pitchers in the top five is just 95 rpm.
99.7
The percentage of Daniel Palencia‘s active spin on the four-seam, tied for best in MLB.
99.8
Palencia’s sinker active spin, best in MLB. The hard-throwing righty has looked much better since coming back up, largely because he’s reduced his walks.
92.2
Brad Keller‘s average changeup velocity, which is good for fifth in MLB. He’s throwing his offspeed nearly four ticks harder than last season and just 1.6 mph slower than his 2024 fastball velo.
86.2
Ben Brown‘s average curveball velocity, putting him fifth behind three twins and former Cubs prospect Brendon Little. It’s wild that Louis Varland (88.4), Jhoan Duran (87), and Jax Griffin (86.7) are all on the same team. Is that a fluke or something the Twins teach/seek out?
3,205
Pressly’s MLB-best curveball spin rate.
7.9
Pressly’s MLB-best curveball horizontal movement in inches relative to comparable pitches.
7.2
Ethan Roberts‘ MLB-best sweeper horizontal movement vs comp.
13
Brown’s swords on the season, one more than Detroit’s Reese Olson for most in baseball.
I find all this stuff endlessly fascinating and could follow any number of different rabbit trails if given the time and audience for such things. Maybe one of these days I’ll do just that. It might be fun to pull on a given statistical thread and follow it for a while to see where it ends up.
