DataBaseball
2026
Gordon Beckham headshot

2B · 2019

Gordon Beckham

Age
33
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 0"
Weight
188 lb
Born
September 16, 1986 in Atlanta, GA, USA
MLB debut
June 4, 2009
dbWAR
-.2
5 season(s)
PA
240
AVG
.215
OBP
.271
SLG
.372
wRC+
67
100 = avg

Gordon Beckham is a second baseman for the Detroit Tigers. In 2019 he hit 6 home runs and knocked in 15 RBIs, notching 48 hits across 240 plate appearances in 75 games. His batting average was .215, 14.7% lower than the league average of .252. He reached base at a .271 clip and slugged .372, for an OPS of .643, 15.1% lower than the league mark of .758 — 12th of 19 on his team, and 374th of 451 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 86.3 mph off the bat, hit 39.0% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 8.9% of them and made contact on 72.3% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 67 wRC+ puts his offence 33% below average. That comes to -0.0 dbWAR — -9.5 runs with the bat, +0.1 on the bases, +1.1 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+67
wOBA.276
ISO.157
BB%5.4%
WAR-.0

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2019. These four terms sum to -0.3 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-9.5Baserunning+0.1Position+1.1Replacement+8.0
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

0.2-0.0-0.21516171819

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2019752404861531368.215.271.372.157.2825.4%28.3%.276-9.567-0.0
201820508011411.182.250.205.023.2428.0%22.0%.214-4.229-0.2
2017818300112.176.222.176.000.2005.6%11.1%.185-2.15-0.1
2016862795253112652.212.294.347.135.2459.3%18.6%.284-8.4730.2
2015852374462001943.209.275.332.123.2298.0%18.1%.270-8.869-0.1

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

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.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP625790417.158.226.211.20127.4%
vs RHP178166396951.235.287.428.30328.7%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2019.

Loading 154 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 146 tracked batted balls in 2019. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
8.9%
13 barrels
Exit velocity
86.3
mph average
Max exit velo
109.4
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
39.0%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
39.0%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
14.7°
average
Barrel rate8.9%
Exit velocity86.3 mph
Hard hit rate39.0%
Contact rate72.3%

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, 2019.

.500.045.1934 AB7 AB.10010 AB.13023 AB.22218 AB.41217 AB.18211 AB.27322 AB.35317 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 .252.

Situational hitting

How Gordon Beckham 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 situations240.215.271.372.276
Bases empty1401293233931.248.307.426.313
Runner on first4742801415.190.277.238.239
Runners on1009416312437.170.220.298.225
RISP53528311022.154.170.346.213

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2019.

Head to head

Put Gordon Beckham beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Gordon Beckham

Similar players

Nearest 2019 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.