Colorado Rockies: DJ LeMahieu is Team’s Most Underrated Player

Colorado Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu is having a terrific offensive and defensive season. In 113 games, he is hitting .343 (third-best in MLB), with nine home runs (a career high), seven triples, and has an OBP of .415 and an OPS of .911. However, the only people who recognize his efforts are us. The national media don’t have a clue. It is why he is the Rockies most underrated player.

As Rox Pile’s Tim Engquist noted in his Purple Monday series, LeMahieu has quickly ascended into one of the best second basemen in all of baseball. He has limited his strikeouts to just 62, as against a new career-high in walks (52) for the Colorado Rockies.

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In the Rockies 6-2 win over the Washington Nationals, LeMahieu nearly hit for the cycle, just falling a double short.

He is also having a superlative defensive season at second. He ranks fifth in the majors with just five errors, 75 double plays turned and a fielding percentage of .991. His range factor (defined as a total number of outs participated in, divide putouts and assists by number of innings or games played at a position) ranks third out of all second basemen at 4.82.

So has this year been a fluke?

No.

LeMahieu has simply turned himself into a good hitter, whether you believe the Coors Field bias or not. As Purple Row’s Bryan Kilpatrick notes, it is his plate discipline which sets him apart.

"The first thing to look at when evaluating how LeMahieu has hit .342 to this point in the season is his plate discipline. The one-time All-Star has the 12th-lowest swinging percentage in the National League on pitches outside of the strike zone. That speaks to his improved selectivity at the plate; in each of his four full big league seasons, LeMahieu’s walk rate has climbed steadily — from 4.4 percent in 2013 to 10.9 percent this year.LeMahieu has coupled his ability to lay off pitches outside of the zone with a truly elite contact rate. Out of all qualified NL hitters, his 90.5 percent contact rate ranks third, behind only Martin Prado and Ender Inciarte."

LeMahieu has mastered the craft of being a good contact hitter. This makes him a tough out, and is a nice backup to leadoff man Charlie Blackmon and his 21 HR and .322 batting average.

And with the club having control over him for the next two years at a very cheap $7.8 million (per spotrac.com), two-third of the Rockies infield is 28 years old or younger.

LeMahieu can keep playing to this great level and be ignored by the national media.

That’s just fine with us. He’s our best underrated player.

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All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and MLB.com unless otherwise indicated.