
Miguel Sano made his major league debut on July 2. That's a little crazy to think about because he's only been in the majors for two months, yet it's hard to remember what the Twins' lineup looked like without him. (Hint: It wasn't as pretty. They averaged 4.22 runs per game before Sano joined the team and have averaged 4.52 runs per game since he came into the lineup).
With the calendar page turned to September and the Twins firmly entrenched in a playoff race, here is a look at Sano's first two months in the big leagues, by the numbers:
THE OUTCOMES OF A SANO AT-BAT
Every at-bat, I suppose, has four likely outcomes: a walk, a strikeout, a hit, or a ball put in play for an out. There are infrequent plays like sacrifices, reaching on an error, hit by pitch, etc., but those are the four main ones.
What's striking about Sano is the distribution of those four things, and how it adds up to an OPS of nearly 1.000.
In 206 plate appearances, Sano has:
49 hits; 33 walks; 74 strikeouts; and 50 other outs (21 on the ground, 19 fly balls and 10 line drives). If you prefer that in pie chart form, here it is:
By comparison, here is Joe Mauer in 528 plate appearances this season (this isn't done to pick on Mauer, just to show the huge difference in approach/results):