Ryan Zimmerman Really Has Improved His Launch Angle

{Exterior, Ryan Zimmerman’s house, October 14, 2016, Virginia Beach, VA}

Zimmerman steps out onto his spacious porch overlooking the Atlantic. You can see the weight of the season on his shoulders. He wistfully looks out over the waves, and sighs.

ZIMMERMAN: Never again. Something has to change. No, damn it. I have to change.

{camera pans up to the setting sun as ominous bass notes play underneath}

(Writer’s note: …I made all that up)

Okay, so maybe, just maybe, Ryan Zimmerman didn’t have a soul-searching, foundation rocking, rubber-meets-the-road moment of introspection the day after the Nationals fell to the Dodgers 4-3 in Game 5 of the NLDS last year.

To be fair, Zimmerman was better than decent in the NLDS (6 for 17, 2 2Bs, .921 OPS). To also be fair, Zimmerman’s 2016 regular season was like a tanker truck lost its brakes and ran trailer-first into a block-long dumpster fire. Zimmerman’s .218/.272/.370 slash line wasn’t just the worst of his career, it was one of the worst in baseball last year. His 67 wRC+ mark tells you he was 33% worse than an average Major League hitter, and, oh by the way, he was making a cool $14 million.

It wasn’t all bad though. He played 115 games, his most since 2013 by at least 20 games, and again was (slightly) above average defensively and on the base paths. Most encouragingly, when he was putting the ball into play, he was hitting it hard.

How hard, you ask? Well, if you look at a Statcast leaderboard showing average exit velocity last year of hitters with at least 100 batted balls in play, Ryan Zimmerman was 12th overall in baseball with a 93.7 mph tally. Great! That’s better than Mike Trout, Paul Goldschmidt, Freddie Freeman, Corey Seager, and Bryce Harper.

I see you now, looking between that exit velocity and Zimmerman’s slash line. Doesn’t add up right? Well it does, if you consider he was like a lead guitarist with a fifth of vodka preshow habit. Except for Zimmerman, his Ketel One was a pesky thing called “launch angle.” Basically, Zimmerman hit ground balls. A lot of them. A ton of them. Too many. So in the offseason, articles proliferated about how Zimmerman needed to improve his launch angle. He had to hit the ball in the air more like teammate Daniel Murphy, who had fully embraced the gospel of the fly ball and saw his career…don’t do it…take off.

Fast forward to 2017. After 12 games and 45 plates appearances, it seems like Ryan Zimmerman is back and better than ever. He’s slashing .333/.378/.643 with a 174 wRC+. I know, and I hear you, learned baseball fan savvy on stats. It’s the dreaded small sample size right? Anyone can have a hot 12 games. It’s two lousy weeks. It’s luck. Here’s the thing though: If you look at the entirety of Zimmerman’s 2016 season, he never had a 12 game span where he hit like he has so far in this season.

One of the best things about a new season of baseball is seeing guys who maybe “fixed things.” Guys who made some sort of mechanical or approach change and they come out of the gates absolutely crushing. Is it real? Is it smoke and mirrors? Part of me wants to say it’s luck. Zimmerman had a career low .248 BABIP last year and he’s sitting at a completely unsustainable .393 right now — almost 60 points above his next highest full season total. It would make me doubt it too, if I hadn’t observed both the difference with my own eyes and the difference in the numbers.

Which numbers you ask? Simple. Zimmerman is demonstrably hitting the ball in the air more so far this year then he did in 2016. I could give you numbers and ratios and other…..math stuff. Instead, I’ll show you two pictures from baseballsavant.com and then hang up and listen. One is Zimmerman’s launch angle profile from his career worst (and constantly worm burning) 2016, and one is from his so far dynamic 2017. You decide for yourself if you see a change.