Brandon Valenzuela walks at a better-than-most clip — better than 73% of qualified hitters. The contact is soft, though — only 32% of qualified hitters hit the ball with less authority.
Each spoke is a skill estimate adjusted for sample size — not raw season stats — so farther out = better.
Percentiles vs. 463 qualified hitters.
Data through 2026-07-15.
Plays like…
Same archetype, nearest by rate — the hitters whose profile looks most like this one.
Every plate appearance ends one of three ways: a strikeout (0 bases), a walk (1 base), or a ball in play worth its estimated bases.
The bar splits his value into those pieces, versus the league.
More bases is better. In the table, 100th percentile = best in MLB.
Ball-in-play basesWalk bases
Bases per plate appearance
.371
.109
Brandon Valenzuela
.351
.084
League average
What a replacement bat would have done
over Brandon Valenzuela's 184 plate appearances
88
Brandon Valenzuela
66
Replacement level
▲ +22 bases above replacement (created 88 vs 66)
Brandon Valenzuela
League
Percentile
Bases per ball in play(higher = better)
.579
.510
43rd
Walk rate(higher = better)
11%
8%
73rd
Strikeout rate(fewer = better)
25%
23%
36th
Platoon splits
Platoon splits (EB/PA)
Dot = shrunk true-talent estimate; bar = 89% credible interval.
Faint diamond = his raw, unshrunk rate against that hand — small samples make it noisy, which is why the model pulls the dot toward a more trustworthy estimate.
Shrunk splits beat raw splits decisively at low PA counts and converge with them as playing time builds — individual platoon gaps need roughly 1,000+ PA vs a hand before the raw number alone can be trusted.
Brandon Valenzuela switch-hits — he can choose the platoon-advantaged side almost every plate appearance, so a small gap here is expected. It is not missing data or a modeling error.
Headline EB/PA (0.432)
vs LHP50 PA0.426
vs LHP: shrunk estimate 0.426 EB/PA, 89% credible interval 0.366 to 0.486, based on 50 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.464 EB/PA.
vs RHP135 PA0.435
vs RHP: shrunk estimate 0.435 EB/PA, 89% credible interval 0.384 to 0.490, based on 135 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.482 EB/PA.
0.3510.3900.4280.4660.505
0.009 EB/PA better vs RHP than vs LHP (shrunk estimate).
89% credible interval: -0.032 to +0.050
That interval crosses zero, so the model can’t confidently say which side he’s actually better against.
How he hits
Hits it to Pull most often, and does the most damage there too.
Best batted balls
Where every ball Brandon Valenzuela put in play landed this season.
Dots are colored by estimated bases (EB) — pale slate (easy out) to dark teal (home-run territory).
Filled dots are hits; hollow rings are outs — a dark ring in the outfield is a crushed ball that got caught.
Hover a dot or a row to link the two; click to watch on Baseball Savant.
