The improvement of Andy Pages could not have arrived at a better time for him and the Dodgers – Dodgers Digest

There was a time earlier this season when people called Andy pages To be demoted to Triple-A Oklahoma City. At the time, it made sense. Until April 19, he only struck .179 / .286 / .328 and withdrew almost 30% of his appearances. Since then, he struck .323 / .341 / .534 and has silenced that 15.2% of his appearances on the plate.

Although it is still a small sample size, it is clear that it has made some adjustments. By plunging into data, its improvement seems to be fueled by improving the discipline of the plate, the judgment of the striking area, being better against the cursor and something else that is not quantifiable – its mental state.

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Overall, its figures are not that Much better than last season – and some are slightly worse:

However, it has a different feeling this season.

He started the 2025 season by hitting mainly in place No. 9 in the programming of stacked dodgers. He struck there 15 times in his first 24 games. Since then, he has not reached ninth. Part of this is due to injury to people like Tommy Edman And Teoscar Hernandezas well as the ineffectiveness of Michael ComfortBut he also won the right to strike higher in the programming. Admittedly, he felt lost by striking at the end of the programming.

“I have never struck there in order,” said pages through an interpreter after having taken 4 for 5 with a career in four products produced (while hitting sixth). “At first, I was more passive, trying to see as many land as possible. It never helped me.
Pages said he had spoken with the Dodgers manager Dave Roberts And the president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and they told him to “relax, be myself”. So he ceased to think about where he struck – and started to strike.

“” I think it’s more because I didn’t think so much about the place where the team made me hit, “he said about overvoltage.” I just did what I have always done and things are going well this way. “”

Hitting is as much – if not more – mental than physical. Once the pages have stopped trying to be the striker he is not, he has shot his season. Let us dive deeper into this turnaround.

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Although it does not hit the stronger balloon, hits less fly balls and swings more outside the striking area, the improvement areas prevail over these pieces of regression.

To start, Pages establishes more contact on the whole this season. Last year, he made a contact rate of 77.8%. This year, he improved it at 80.4%. Its percentage of swing in the area is almost identical to last season (71%to 70.5%), but it comes into contact with an increase of almost 5 points compared to last season – 89.4%. Although he will never be confused to Luis Arceerz Or Nico HoernerHe has the top 50 in baseball and is fourth on dodgers with his% in contact Z, behind Edman, Will Smith And Mookie Betts.

Because it establishes more contacts in the area – despite swinging on land outside the area a little more – it was able to reduce its withdrawal rate to 20.4% very pleasant. He has made a marked improvement against cursors in particular, which has been a great reason for his success so far this season compared to his difficulties last year.

As such, his race value made an 180. He had a racing value -7 against the cursor last year. This year is +4. As a cumulative statistics, he did it in less than half of the appearances of plates he had in 2024. He also did by seeing more cursors so far this season (19.9% ​​to 17.3%). The league certainly has this Intel, so maybe the teams will stop throwing it as many cursors (although this has not yet happened) and attacking it with a different rupture ground. The only other field with a horizontal movement that gives pages (that is, a negative race value) is the cutter, with a -3 this season. This is something to watch in the future with the prevalence of cutters these days.

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Essentially, Pages becomes a more complete striker and less a guy from the peloton thanks to his improvement against Spin and, above all, to him on the mental obstacles he had about a month ago. Once among the best prospects, he looked more like a player last year (despite his race game at 2 houses in the NLC). Now it looks like a solid and daily starter. He may not be the next marble teoscar, but if he is a lower version of him with the bat while playing a superior defense, well, he is a guy. And it’s a guy that dodgers need in a group strewn with superstars.