The Slow Start
If we take a look at Anthony Rendon's cumulative numbers through his first 101 plate appearances in April, they don't look all that bad (107 wRC+, .337 wOBA). That's because he did this on April 30th.
.@Anthonyrendon_6 becomes FIRST player to go 6-for-6 with 3 HR and 10 RBIs in one game since at least 1913.https://t.co/NAMOYwP4pa pic.twitter.com/2epf5vbyfx
— MLB Stat of the Day (@MLBStatoftheDay) April 30, 2017
That'll help the ol' stat line out, don't you think?
So, if we ignore that historic performance on the final day of the month, Rendon was actually struggling quite a bit. Through his first 95 plate appearances, he was slashing an anemic .226/.316/.250 with just two extra-base hits (both doubles), leading to a 58 wRC+ and .263 wOBA.
The Hot Streak
Since that historic performance, Rendon has slashed a cool .339/.445/.739 with 11 home runs, 11 doubles, 31 RBI and 24 runs scored in 137 plate appearances. His wRC+ (203) and wOBA (.483) jump off the page, and they help his season-long numbers in these categories climb up to 144 and .393, respectively.
Those aren't the only big differences, though. The below table shows the drastic changes to his line-drive rate (LD%), ground-ball rate (GB%), fly-ball rate (FB%) and hard-hit rate (Hard%) between the two periods of time we've been discussing.
| Time Period | LD% | GB% | FB% | Hard% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Through April 29th | 12.3% | 49.2% | 38.5% | 20.0% |
| Since April 30th | 18.8% | 30.7% | 50.5% | 38.6% |
Yeah, that'll turn someone's season around in a hurry.