September stat roundup: Colorado Rockies standouts

Sam Hilliard

Talk about an entrance into the big leagues. “Slam Hillyard” (the actual correct spelling) smashed his way into the big leagues with 7 HRs and a HR/FB% of 33.3%. Five of those came in September when he posted a wRC+ of 130. He’s barreling up the ball on 8.0% of his PAs (league average is 6.0%). That would lead the Rockies if it were a season long performance.

What helps cement the idea that Hillyard can continue to do this is that his K% of 26.4% is lower than when he was in Hartford (31.2%) and Albuquerque (29.3%). He also had a lower BABIP in September (.306) than he did in than every other year he played in the minors, suggesting there may actually be a little bit more in the tank.

Defensively, it may be a bit too early to really evaluate how he’ll be going forward. Per Fangraphs, Hillyard was a below average fielder in his short month plus with the Rockies, but defensive stats always need quite a bit more data before truly being able to evaluate a defender (and even then they should be taken with a grain of salt).

In LF, “Hillyard” was at -2 DRS while in CF he was at 1. Most of his inning were played in CF so it’d be beneficial to see him play there in the future, but we’ll see how things work out next season once David Dahl is back in the mix.

Adding “Hillyard’s” bat to the lineup next season should be a positive step forward for the offense, especially if he can produce anywhere near close to his September wRC+ of 130.