Texas Rangers: Joey Gallo presents quite a conundrum
It’s been an interesting second season for Texas Rangers infielder Joey Gallo, as evidenced by some crazy numbers.
If you were to ask one set of Texas Rangers fans about Joey Gallo, they’d claim this season a failure. Yet, there’s another faction that believes he’s had a fantastic season. When we take a deeper look at his performance, we see that both sides have a case.
The bad side of Joey Gallo
You don’t have to know much about the Rangers to know Gallo has one glaring weakness. Just watch a couple of games and you’ll realize that he strikes out a bit. Actually, he strikes out a lot.
In 165 plate appearances this season, Gallo has amassed 63 strikeouts. To put that in perspective, the average big league hitters is considered to have struck out “a lot” when they strike out 100+ times. He’s on pace to reach that on June 22. That’s a week and a half before the season’s midpoint.
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In 38.2% of his trips to the dish, he’s walked back to the dugout without putting the ball in play. What it amounts to, is that Gallo’s on pace to strike out 227 times in 2017. However, Gallo does not lead the league in strikeouts.
It should surprise nobody though, that former Texas Rangers first baseman Chris Davis holds that distinction. He has one more than Gallo to this point, but has only struck out in 36.2% of his plate appearances. But the big difference between the two of them comes in batting average.
Gallo enters Tuesday night’s game against the Red Sox with a .183 average. Even with more strikeouts, Davis has a batting average over 60 points higher. But despite his lower number of hits and higher number of Ks, Gallo gives us plenty to get excited about this season.
The good side of Joey Gallo
Taking his batting average and strikeouts alone, Gallo’s season will make you insane. But check this out. He surprisingly gets on base more often than we realize. At this moment, Gallo’s .303 on base percentage, while still low by league standards, is pretty high for a guy batting just .183.
All MLB hitters have combined for an average walk percentage of just 8.8% this season. But entering Tuesday night’s game at Fenway, Gallo has walked in 12.7% of his plate appearances. So while he does go down on strikes quite often, he’s still seeing enough pitches at the dish to grab more than his fair share of walks as well. Then of course, there’s his power.
Gallo currently ranks fifth in all of baseball with 13 home runs. He sits just two behind New York Yankees slugging sensation Aaron Judge. This puts Gallo on pace to hit 47 homers by season’s end.
Because of the number of times he’s gone yard, he has a very hefty .807 OPS for the year. Regardless of batting average or strikeouts, that’s an pretty nice season. Add that to his home run total, and it’s flat-out impressive.
He’s also driven in 29 runs, putting him on pace for 104 RBIs for the year. If he ends up with 47 home runs, 104 runs batted in and an OPS of .807, that commands some respect. But of course, he still has to maintain that pace in order for it to happen.
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Regardless of where you fall on the debate about how well he’s played, you can’t deny that it’s fascinating. After all, his home runs don’t just barely clear the fence. Many of them rocket way up into the air and pierce the sky like airborne missiles. So perhaps, this discussion should wait until after the season when all is said and done. But in the meantime, let’s just enjoy the show.