DataBaseball
2026
Michael Bourn headshot

CF · 2016

Michael Bourn

Age
34
B/T
L/R
Height
5' 11"
Weight
190 lb
Number
#21
Born
December 27, 1982 in Houston, TX, USA
MLB debut
July 30, 2006
dbWAR
.7
2 season(s)
PA
413
AVG
.264
OBP
.314
SLG
.371
wRC+
81
100 = avg

Michael Bourn is a center fielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2016 he hit 5 home runs and knocked in 38 RBIs, notching 99 hits across 413 plate appearances in 109 games. His batting average was .264, 3.4% higher than the league average of .255. He reached base at a .314 clip and slugged .371, for an OPS of .684, 7.4% lower than the league mark of .739 — the second worst on his team, and 303rd of 438 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 84.2 mph off the bat, hit 20.7% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 3.4% of them and made contact on 76.3% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 81 wRC+ puts his offence 19% below average. That comes to 0.8 dbWAR — -6.8 runs with the bat, +0.7 on the bases, +0.1 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2016.

wRC+81
wOBA.301
ISO.107
BB%6.8%
WAR.8

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2016. These four terms sum to +7.8 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-6.8Baserunning+0.7Position+0.1Replacement+13.8
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

0.80.4-0.01516

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
201610941399538152892.264.314.371.107.3366.8%22.3%.301-6.8810.8
20151364821010301746107.238.310.282.045.3159.5%22.2%.272-16.964-0.0

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2016. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP7570251419.357.387.457.36525.3%
vs RHP3393067442473.242.296.350.28521.5%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2016.

Loading 282 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 232 tracked batted balls in 2016. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
3.4%
8 barrels
Exit velocity
84.2
mph average
Max exit velo
105.1
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
20.7%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
40.5%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
9.1°
average
Barrel rate3.4%
Exit velocity84.2 mph
Hard hit rate20.7%
Contact rate76.3%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2016.

.118.200.064.152.40015 AB.22722 AB.25012 AB.29544 AB.31042 AB.30826 AB.32437 AB.31947 AB.48025 AB
Below averageLeague averageAbove average
Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .255.

Situational hitting

How Michael Bourn hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by
By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations413.264.314.371.301
Bases empty22821051331849.243.303.338.285
Runner on first91812214620.272.322.383.310
Runners on186166482351043.289.326.410.319
RISP958526131423.306.330.435.328

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2016.

Head to head

Put Michael Bourn beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Michael Bourn

Similar players

Nearest 2016 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.