1B · 2019

Steve Pearce

Age: 36
B/T: R/R
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 200 lb
Number: #51

Born: April 13, 1983 in Lakeland, FL, USA
MLB debut: September 1, 2007

dbWAR: 3.9
PA: 99
AVG: .180
OBP: .245
SLG: .258
wRC+: 34

Steve Pearce is a first baseman for the Boston Red Sox. In 2019 he hit 1 home run and knocked in 9 RBIs, notching 16 hits across 99 plate appearances in 29 games. His batting average was .180, 28.7% lower than the league average of .252. He reached base at a .245 clip and slugged .258, for an OPS of .503, 33.6% lower than the league mark of .758. He averaged 89.1 mph off the bat, hit 37.0% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 3.7% of them and made contact on 68.7% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 34 wRC+ puts his offence 66% below average. That comes to -0.7 dbWAR — -8.2 runs with the bat, -0.0 on the bases, -2.1 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, 2019.

wRC+34

wOBA.226

ISO.079

BB%7.1%

WAR-.7

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2019. These four terms sum to -7.1 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2019	29	99	16	1	9	0	7	31	.180	.245	.258	.079	.259	7.1%	31.3%	.226	-8.2	34	-0.7
2018	75	251	61	11	42	0	29	41	.284	.378	.512	.228	.303	11.6%	16.3%	.386	+13.8	144	1.7
2017	92	348	79	13	37	0	27	68	.252	.319	.438	.185	.281	7.8%	19.5%	.326	+0.5	103	0.7
2016	83	302	76	13	35	0	34	54	.288	.374	.492	.205	.318	11.3%	17.9%	.375	+12.8	141	1.7
2015	91	325	64	15	40	1	23	69	.218	.289	.422	.204	.232	7.1%	21.2%	.312	-1.2	92	0.6

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Season

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2019. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHP	43	40	8	1	2	16	.200	.238	.300	.234	37.2%
vs RHP	56	49	8	0	5	15	.163	.250	.224	.220	26.8%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2019.

Loading 59 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 54 tracked batted balls in 2019. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate: 3.7%
Exit velocity: 89.1
Max exit velo: 107.3
Hard hit: 37.0%
Sweet spot: 38.9%
Launch angle: 12.6°

Barrel rate3.7%

Exit velocity89.1 mph

Hard hit rate37.0%

Contact rate68.7%

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, 2019.

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 .252.

Situational hitting

How Steve Pearce 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.
Situation	PA	AB	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA
All situations	99	—	—	—	—	—	—	.180	.245	.258	.226
Bases empty	49	44	10	0	0	3	16	.227	.292	.295	.263
Runner on first	26	23	3	1	3	3	8	.130	.231	.304	.237
Runners on	50	45	6	1	9	4	15	.133	.200	.222	.190
RISP · thin	24	22	3	0	6	1	7	.136	.167	.136	.139

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Rows under 25 plate appearances are marked thin — at that size a rate moves several dozen points on one hit. Counted from play-by-play, 2019.

Head to head

Put Steve Pearce beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players

Steve Pearce

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.