Can we just get a do-over for April? Sure, Yermin Mercedes wouldn't be too thrilled about it, but most every other hitter would probably get on board.
The further we distance ourselves from that wretched first month, the more it looks like an aberration.
That wasn't the thinking at the time. You may recall some hand-wringing over the recently deadened baseballs and what appeared to be our new reality. Batted balls weren't traveling as far. Breaking balls were becoming bendier. Offense was in the tank.
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Turns out unseasonably cold temperatures may have been mostly to blame. As the weather normalized in May, so did the offensive environment, and the trend has continued here in June. In fact, MLB's decision to crack down on pitchers' use foreign substances has seemingly sent offense into overdrive.
Here's the breakdown:
| | AVG | BABIP | K% | HR/9 |
April | .229 | .281 | 24.4 | 1.17 |
May | .236 | .290 | 24.0 | 1.15 |
June | .244 | .293 | 23.3 | 1.31 |
It's normal for offense to pick up midseason, but comparing June to April, you'd think they started playing baseball on the moon. And it may only be the beginning. Those reports about the foreign substance crackdown first came around the start of June, and we did see certain pitchers' spin rates dip almost immediately. But Monday marked the first day of umpires proactively checking for foreign substances, which will perhaps lead to even more pitchers shying away from them.
But that's a different subject for a different day. For now, let's look at some of the hitters who've improved the most since the end of April and consider whether that first month should be discarded altogether.
He was identified early on as a player who could suffer from the deadened baseballs, making the confirmation bias in April difficult to avoid. Slowly but surely, though, his numbers are coming around.
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The power may not be coming back at age 34, but he's not a lost cause yet. What's most amazing is the way his home numbers still lag behind his road numbers given how much time the Rockies spent at Coors Field in April.
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His season-long batting average is still lagging thanks to the rocky start, but would you believe the 34-year-old has been the 18th-best outfielder in points leagues since the start of May?
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