Who is the best MLB hitter?
I am going to try to find who is the best offensive player in this data set. I only grabbed 100 players to keep it simpler and to not put too much stress on the site. It will also be more interesting because the best player may be a less obvious answer. This data was scraped a couple of days ago and contains data from the 2023 season.
Home runs
Home runs are always exciting, so lets look who has hit the most home runs.
| FULL_NAME | total_HR | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Max Muncy | 11 | 1 |
| Pete Alonso | 10 | 2 |
| Patrick Wisdom | 9 | 3 |
| Rafael Devers | 9 | 4 |
| Rowdy Tellez | 8 | 5 |
| Adolis Garcia | 7 | 6 |
| James Outman | 7 | 7 |
| Jarred Kelenic | 7 | 8 |
| Ozzie Albies | 7 | 9 |
| Aaron Judge | 6 | 10 |
Max Muncy has the most home runs in this data base, but does that mean he is the best hitter?
OBP
Getting on base is also important, so who is the best at that?
| FULL_NAME | OBP | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Luis Arraez | 0.506 | 1 |
| Brandon Nimmo | 0.456 | 2 |
| Matt Chapman | 0.446 | 3 |
| Brandon Marsh | 0.444 | 4 |
| Ronald Acuna | 0.442 | 5 |
| Mike Trout | 0.426 | 6 |
| Xander Bogaerts | 0.421 | 7 |
| Sean Murphy | 0.419 | 8 |
| LaMonte Wade | 0.419 | 9 |
| Randy Arozarena | 0.412 | 10 |
Max Muncy did not even make this list. Also it is interesting that Mike Trout is only ranked 6th and he is widely considered the GOAT.
OBP and HR
What is we look at these two stats side by side on a graph. My hypothesis is that the player furthest away from the origin is likely the best hitter in the data frame, and we will test this later.
| FULL_NAME | max_HR | max_OBP | distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max Muncy | 11 | 0.411 | 11.00768 |
Max Muncy is the furthest away from the origin so by this standard he is currently the best hitter in this data frame.
Stolen Bases
Stolen bases are a bigger part of the game this year because of some of the rule changes. This also adds offensive value to your team so lets see who has the most stolen bases this year.| FULL_NAME | total_sb | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Ronald Acuna | 13 | 1 |
| Cedric Mullins | 10 | 2 |
| Corbin Carroll | 10 | 3 |
| Nico Hoerner | 9 | 4 |
| Jeremy Pena | 6 | 5 |
| Thairo Estrada | 6 | 6 |
| Bobby Witt | 5 | 7 |
| Gleyber Torres | 5 | 8 |
| Kyle Tucker | 5 | 9 |
| Wander Franco | 5 | 10 |
Max Muncy is also not on this list. However, SB are just an offensive stat, not a hitting stat. There are many great hitters who did not steal bases. So Max Muncy is still in the running for the best hitter in this data frame.
Test
Let’s test the earlier idea that the graph could tell who the best hitter in the data frame is. The stat OPS is considered to be the best stat to tell how good a hitter is. Let’s find out if Max Muncy is near the top.
| FULL_NAME | total_ops | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Brandon Marsh | 1.173 | 1 |
| Max Muncy | 1.129 | 2 |
| Jarred Kelenic | 1.121 | 3 |
| James Outman | 1.109 | 4 |
| Matt Chapman | 1.105 | 5 |
| Luis Arraez | 1.089 | 6 |
| Sean Murphy | 1.057 | 7 |
| Mike Trout | 1.031 | 8 |
| Randy Arozarena | 0.996 | 9 |
| Ronald Acuna | 0.987 | 10 |
Max Muncy ranks second on this list, therefore I determine him to be the best hitter in the data set as he was first in the graph that I thought would predict the best hitter and came up second in OPS which many analysts see as a great stat to decide who the best hitter is. Brandon Marsh was first in OPS but did not even show up on the graph. It is also worth noting that the graph stat is completely made up and this expirement was just for fun.