Fun to Watch: Ben Gamel
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Somebody STAP meh before I Gamel again!
Kain't help it. Very much aside from Gamel's freakish BABIP-driven statline, there are 29 things that make this player more fun than beating the San Francisco 49er's. Tell you one thing about sports... how should we put it. One time last year my son and I ran down to the YMCA to get in some basketball. The place was deserted, except for two high school kids, maybe 10th grade. Take what you can get. :- )
Clueless, I sauntered up to the kids and axed if they wanted to go a few minutes of 2-on-2. They looked at me weird but said, yeah, I guess. With my legendary self-effacement I'll modestly allow that John and I destroyed them. Which isn't supposed to shock you when you play children.
After the game, John said, Dad, please don't do that. "Do what?" You can play, Dad, but you must also take into account APPEARANCE. (Yowch.) Fine, Dad, this super old guy who's bald with a beard stumbles out there and then starts hooping but nobody wants to watch Santa Claus rain threes at the gym. Try to blend in can'cha.
Ben Gamel is the opposite of, um, ME. Ben Gamel LOOKS super cool. His hair is cool, his Batman jaw is cool, his I Got This is cool, his slashing athleticism is cool, he just IS cool. Sometimes you gotta put form over functionality. :- ) John thinks that Gamel looks more Duck Dynasty but I think he looks more like one of Achilles' 50 henchmen. He's gotta shave, though. With a jaw like that?
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Gamel's BABIP is .462, meaning that when he does not strike out walk or homer, 46% of his batted balls into fair play have gone for hits. The major league average is .299. The upper bound of possibility is .350 to .365, because major league fielders are going to find a way to cover 65% of the grass.
Trout BABIP's a legit .365. Paul Goldschmidt, hitting vapor trails every AB, has a .358 over the last five years and that's running right handed out of the box. Starling Marte, with his speed, has .358 the last five years. Ichiro had several years at .380, .390, and Ichiro sent BaseballHQ hunting for refinements to their BABIP formula. Ichiro personally "broke" the system in his prime, but we all know that Ben Gamel isn't going to Ichiro out a .380 BABIP.
So I'm 100% with G-Money, I'm very interested to see what Ben Gamel is when his BABIP settles back to .330, .340. My guess is, a 110 OPS+. But a Seth Smith level hitter, with excellent defense and baserunning, is quite a player.
What's the Mariners' opinion? They are well aware that Guillermo Heredia is a 3+ WAR player, hard on the barrelhead. And they've got Gamel in front of him.
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Another thing that is FUN about watching Ben Gamel, is trying to figure out which batter he compares to. He is a Pitch Stalker -- extreme patience combined with a high percentage of hard hit balls. Except he doesn't get his pitch and yank it into the RF stands. Ben Gamel gets his pitch and then smokes it 12' high down the line, or into a gap. Gamel's 13% soft hit rate is right there with the greats of the game - Miggy, Sano, Corey Seager, Harper. Ben Gamel is putting serious hurt on the baseball.
In the best case, Gamel could turn out to be a Dexter Fowler type at the plate. Fowler hits .260 (lots of K's) with 80 walks a year and a 15% soft hit rate, like Gamel. In fulltime play Fowler gets 40 doubles-triples and slugs .425-.450 for a 120 OPS+ and 5.5 to 6.0 runs per 27 outs.
Fowler has been stealing about 15 per year lately and Gamel is probably in that category. Contrary to popular assumption, Fowler isn't a great defender and despite negative UZR, he racks up 4 WAR per season with that profile.
Never thought of it as a profile: the pitch-stalking line drive hitter. But there are a few - Fowler, Michael Brantley, Ben Zobrist, the post-30 Shin-Soo Choo. Turns out you can hit .260 with 80 walks and 40 doubles without any homers.
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But the best thing about Gamel? He's a cool looking player, with a cool looking game.
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Enjoy,
Dr D
Photo: Getty Images