Why is Dominic Smith so awesome now?

Dominic Smith has continued producing strong offensive results rather than fading after early success. His rolling 100-plate-appearance xwOBA has stayed above league average since the start of April and has not dropped below .350 since April 14. His wOBA and xwOBA remain high, indicating solid overall contact quality without obvious red flags. His current season stands out compared with most prior years, where his xwOBA typically sat in the .320s or lower, with a non-shortened career-high around .325. The improvement is linked to a more aggressive approach: he swings at nearly everything, chases pitches at an unusually high rate, and targets four-seam fastballs for damage.

"It would've been enough for Smith to have those two big April hits and then fade into obsolescence. Two huge game-swinging mashes for a guy signed to a split deal with a $1.25 million salary in the majors would've been plenty. As I did in an earlier post about him, that would've been reminiscent of Pablo Sandoval, and it would've been fine. We still remember Pablo Sandoval."

"He's kept raking. His rolling 100-PA xwOBA hasn't been below league average since the start of April, and it hasn't even been below .350 since April 14. Nor is he egregiously outhitting it: a .370 wOBA and .378 xwOBA is both really good and nothing to sideeye for any reason."

"It's easy to say that Smith has never had a season quite like this one, except in 2020. He was crazy-good that year, and he's still got a ways to go this year before matching his PA total from that shortened season (106 so far, 199 in 2020). But in every other year, he really didn't do much: in his other eight seasons, he had an xwOBA in the .320s four times, and something lower the other four times. In other words, in a non-shortened season, his career-high xwOBA was .325."

"Smith is swinging at everything. While it's not the highest z-swing rate of his career, it's the highest in quite a few years. His chase rate is egregiously high, not just for him, but for anyone. He's swinging at nearly half of first pitches he sees; previously he was much closer to a quarter, while the league is about one-in-three. He's not walking, but he's also not striking out, because he's up there to hit the ball."

Read at Battery Power