Pirates' Esmerlyn Valdez is Hitting Home Runs at the Best Rate in MLB History
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Pirates' Esmerlyn Valdez is Hitting Home Runs at the Best Rate in MLB History originally appeared on SportsNet Pittsburgh. Add SportsNet Pittsburgh as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Pittsburgh Pirates knew that Esmerlyn Valdez could hit.
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But did they think he could start his MLB career in record-setting fashion? No one would've predicted what Valdez is doing right now.
He has hit 10 home runs in just 94 at bats to begin his major league tenure. That's a rate of 9.4 at bats per homer.
The all-time record belongs to Mark McGwire, who homered every 10.6 at bats during his long MLB career.
Of course, Valdez is nowhere near the at bat minimum to qualify for such a chart, but it emphasizes just how ridiculous this hot streak has been for the 22-year old outfielder from the Dominican Republic.
Valdez is also hitting .309, so this isn't just a power surge. He's locked in at the dish so far.
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It creates the possibility for some fun rabbit holes to dig down here, too.
For example: Mark Worrell, Esteban Yan and Frank O'Connor all had two career at bats and hit one home run. That's 2.00 at bats per home run -- although even further from being qualified for any kind of all-time leaderboards.
There really is no one who ended their career with at bats in Valdez's age that had a rate like this, which makes sense, because they'd have been given a lot more at bats.
Most likely, pitchers will start to adjust, and he'll slow down a bit. But this is as encouraging a start as anyone in Pittsburgh could've asked for.
And hey, no one could've known for sure that any all-time greats were at that level until they went on the field and did it. Valdez would have to keep this up for years to enter any kinds of conversations like that -- but he's at least started in the right direction.