Brewers: Luis Urias Doing the Most to Maximize His Swings

Luis Urias has compiled a nice start to his season. All throughout his career Urias was praised for his plate discipline. That has been on show in his time with the Brewers. He does not swing much, but he does make an effort to maximize those swings.

This may be rather number heavy, but bear with me.

As of April 28th, Urias saw a total of 272 pitches, and (48.2%) of those have been in the zone. Of those pitches in the zone, Urias has swung at 56.5%  of those pitches, making contact on 82.4% of those pitches. That is a long way to say that Urias does a good job of being selective when he swings.

The Brewers young shortstop is doing his best to maximize every single one of the swings he takes.

When looking at where Urias sits in relation to the league average, it makes his plate discipline and swing efficiency even more clear .

The league average for swing % on pitches in the zone is 68% with Urias comfortably under at 56.5%. The league average for contact % on pitches in the zone is 80.42%, and Urias is again higher at 82.4%.

The quadrant that Urias sits in is a selective quadrant that swings less than league average on pitches, but makes contact on a higher percentage than league average when the pitches are in the zone.

For Urias, a majority of pitches he has seen this season are out of the zone (51.8%), which is slightly above the league average of 51.6%. When looking at pitches outside the zone that Urias has seen, his trend of making higher contact than league average, while swinging at less pitches.

The league average for pitches swung at out of the zone is just under 27%, Urias on the other hand is sitting at 24.8% for pitches swung at outside the zone. The league average contact% on out of the zone pitches is 55.49%. Meanwhile Luis Urias is well above that average at 68.6%.

Urias also is continuing his career trend of limiting whiffs (# of swings and misses/total swings). His 2021 Whiff% is a solid 22%, which puts him in the 72 percentile across the entire league. His Whiff% is down from 22.7% in 2020, and he is reducing his chase% (swings on pitches out of the zone by 0.7% as well).

Back when he was a prospect, Urias’ plate discipline was highly touted, and that continues to show in his time in Milwaukee. He is not only walking more this year (he has a 10.8% increase from last season), but he is being efficient when he does swing.

Urias may not swing at every pitch, but when he does swing the bat, there is a better than not chance that he will make some form of contact on that ball, further adding to the skillset that makes him the best shortstop in the division.