Turang article from Fangraphs

[markedman5]

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/brice-turangs-quantum-leap/

[yfinn6]

Thread title: A+ 

[AKCheesehead]

One thing that jumped out at me in the article:  "At the time, it seemed like puffery, an attempt to build confidence in a former first-round pick who’d been sub-replacement level in his first major league season."   I thought, that can't be right.  I looked it up and sure enough, his 2023 fWAR was -.2 whereas his bWAR was 1.6.  Quite a divide, whereas in '24 he's at 1.1 and 1.2 respectively. 

[nate82]

2 hours ago, markedman5 said:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/brice-turangs-quantum-leap/

Such riveting a discussion.  If you are going to make a new thread at least add something more than a link.

[markedman5]

I thought people might be interested in the article…….that’s why posted the link…….if you aren’t interested then by all means feel free to skip any threads I start in the future.

my god people will whine about anything.

[nate82]

4 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

I thought people might be interested in the article…….that’s why posted the link…….if you aren’t interested then by all means feel free to skip any threads I start in the future.

my god people will whine about anything.

All you had to do was say I thought this article was interesting about Turang and then provide the link.  How hard would that be to do?

[markedman5]

I didn’t post it because I thought it was boring or a waste of time for people to read……I thought that would have been obvious……..but I guess not.

 

ill try to do better next time.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, nate82 said:

All you had to do was say I thought this article was interesting about Turang and then provide the link.  How hard would that be to do?

All you had to do was read the article or not. But instead you're complaining about someone posting on a forum with fewer and fewer posts every year.

[ctmyers]

Thanks for posting this.  Is that enough commentary?  

Regardless, the development from Turang has been terrific.  

[Baldkin]

Give me a Rang! 

Give me another Rang!

 

What's that make?

 

Turang!

[thebruce44]

Outside of a pinned game thread where I have to wade through hot takes about individual pitches, there's not much content besides mega threads like 2024 MLB Miscellaneous News with 167 replies. I get one here once every couple of days, I'm not going to open that thread and try to find my way through it. I hate Reddit, but honestly the Brewers forum there is becoming easier to use for infrequent posters...

Glad this was posed, I enjoyed the article.

[Playing Catch]

There can't be enough Turang threads for me. "Vote Turang for All-Star Game!", "Turang for Gold Glove!" "Turang for Silver Slugger!" "Turang for President!"

Anytime we get to celebrate this guy, I'm all aboard.

[Oxy]

1 hour ago, thebruce44 said:

Outside of a pinned game thread where I have to wade through hot takes about individual pitches, there's not much content besides mega threads like 2024 MLB Miscellaneous News with 167 replies. I get one here once every couple of days, I'm not going to open that thread and try to find my way through it. I hate Reddit, but honestly the Brewers forum there is becoming easier to use for infrequent posters...

Glad this was posed, I enjoyed the article.

Huh? Every thread has a line divider when the last post was made that you read...and jumps to that point whenever you open it.

I don't think there is anything wrong with a Brice Turang appreciation/discussion thread opened with a Fangraph's article, although I see how for organizational purposes it makes more sense to put it in the Brewers media thread....(if there is one? There always used to be)

[Samurai Bucky]

Funny quip from the article:

Quote

 

This is great news, and I’m sure it comes as a great relief to the concerned grandmothers of America that Turang is eating more.

 

More of a discussion point:

Quote

 

Turang isn’t hitting the ball that much harder in 2024. He’s currently 232nd out of 279 hitters with an EV50 of 97.0 mph; that’s up from 96.2 mph last year, which was 247th out of 258. He’s in the 17th percentile for barrel rate and the 15th for HardHit%.

 

This cannot be true!  A high EV is required to be a solid, high BA/OPS contributor!

Does he get lucky sometimes?  Sure.  Hitting a ball at 75 MPH and having it magically find a hole could be considered lucky.  He is only striking out at a 13% clip.  Whiff % down to 11%.  He puts the ball in play (I mean "Gets on Base").

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/brice-turang-668930?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb

[wiguy94]

7 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

Funny quip from the article:

More of a discussion point:

This cannot be true!  A high EV is required to be a solid, high BA/OPS contributor!

Does he get lucky sometimes?  Sure.  Hitting a ball at 75 MPH and having it magically find a hole could be considered lucky.  He is only striking out at a 13% clip.  Whiff % down to 11%.  He puts the ball in play (I mean "Gets on Base").

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/brice-turang-668930?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb

Turang is hitting the ball harder this year. His average EV is up from 85.5 to 89.5 but he's not doing it from increasing the top end of his EV which is what EV50 measures. He's just making weak contact a lot less so far this year. Personally my favorite change with Turang this year is that he's hitting the ball on the ground more and that contact has basically entirely come from pop ups being eliminated.

2023 vs 2024 batted ball distribution

GB% - 42.5 vs 53.5

FB% - 25.1 vs 23.9

LD% - 24.1 vs 21.1

PU% - 8.3 vs 1.4

You take a guy like Turang and you remove all those pop ups for more hard hit grounders and you have a dramatically better hitter. 

[LouisEly]

On 4/26/2024 at 3:43 PM, markedman5 said:

I thought people might be interested in the article…….that’s why posted the link…….if you aren’t interested then by all means feel free to skip any threads I start in the future.

my god people will whine about anything.

I think it's more about giving at least some type of commentary about what the article is about so that we can make a better informed decision about whether or not we want to take the time to start reading it.

I believe there was some discussion along these lines a while back, maybe two-ish years ago, about pasting a link with no commentary and then people complained because they took the time to click and start reading it but then the content wasn't something that they were interested in.

[yfinn6]

5 hours ago, LouisEly said:

I think it's more about giving at least some type of commentary about what the article is about so that we can make a better informed decision about whether or not we want to take the time to start reading it.

I believe there was some discussion along these lines a while back, maybe two-ish years ago, about pasting a link with no commentary and then people complained because they took the time to click and start reading it but then the content wasn't something that they were interested in.

OP has been a known offender of the practice, too. I believe I said something years ago about at least making minimal effort to write what the article was about, etc.

No one is upset he posted at article about Brice Turang, or any Brewer. My initial comment was snark because his initial thread title was, "Turang" and then he just posted the link to the article. 

[LouisEly]

2 hours ago, yfinn6 said:

OP has been a known offender of the practice, too. I believe I said something years ago about at least making minimal effort to write what the article was about, etc.

No one is upset he posted at article about Brice Turang, or any Brewer. My initial comment was snark because his initial thread title was, "Turang" and then he just posted the link to the article. 

Must be a journalist - trying to be the first to get the scoop/post the link at all costs

[markedman5]

Interesting breakdown from Derosa

 

[WV Brew]

Has anybody else noticed that Turang's swing seems to be different than when he started the year?  He is now dropping his hands as the pitcher starts, the bat becomes vertical and then he has to pull it back before he swings, kind of Wiemer-esque,  It is tending back to the looping uppercut swing he had last year.  That short, flat swing was so beautiful.

[kestrel79]

Crazy to see his stance change that much in a years time. Great video and breakdown.

Does anyone know what the hockey puck bat does? Is it a balance thing having that bigger knob on there? He chokes up quite a bit on that giant bat too I've noticed. 

Glad it's working!

[Playing Catch]

17 minutes ago, kestrel79 said:

Crazy to see his stance change that much in a years time. Great video and breakdown.

Does anyone know what the hockey puck bat does? Is it a balance thing having that bigger knob on there? He chokes up quite a bit on that giant bat too I've noticed. 

Glad it's working!

It changes the center of balance in relationship to where you grip the bat, so yes, it's a balance thing. I'm always surprised that more players don't use bats like that. We all choked up on a bat a few times in our lifetimes. The improvement in one's ability to control the bat is stark.

[Fear The Chorizo]

2 hours ago, Playing Catch said:

It changes the center of balance in relationship to where you grip the bat, so yes, it's a balance thing. I'm always surprised that more players don't use bats like that. We all choked up on a bat a few times in our lifetimes. The improvement in one's ability to control the bat is stark.

There's been such a shift towards increasing bat speed through the zone for power that bats have become weighted heavily into the barrel - Turang is using a 35-inch bat (enormous by today's standards, particularly for a player of his stature), but its design is much more balanced than what most of the bats are now, making it easier for him to get through the zone.  It caters to hitting the ball where it's pitched moreso than using power/batspeed to force a batted ball to a pull-side field with authority.  When most pitchers are supplying 95+ mph velocity in pitches, a player can still hit with plenty of pop without trying to max out their own bat speed through the hitting area.

[LouisEly]

Saw a tweet/X today that said that Turang has the second shortest swing in MLB.

[ctmyers]

I listened to a little bit of Turang's interview on Foul Territory (Aj Pierzynski, Todd Frazier, Erik Kratz podcats) and he spoke about being directed by his Dad this past offseason to hit more low line drives, rather than sell out for power.  It's somewhat reminiscent of when Jean Segura got offseason help on his swing and turned into a substantially better hitter.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GCxlLsTikw