DataBaseball
2026
David Freese headshot

1B · 2019

David Freese

Age
36
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 2"
Weight
213 lb
Number
#23
Born
April 28, 1983 in Corpus Christi, TX, USA
MLB debut
April 6, 2009
dbWAR
9.5
5 season(s)
PA
186
AVG
.315
OBP
.403
SLG
.599
wRC+
170
100 = avg

David Freese is a first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2019 he hit 11 home runs and knocked in 29 RBIs, notching 51 hits across 186 plate appearances in 78 games. His batting average was .315, 24.8% higher than the league average of .252. He reached base at a .403 clip and slugged .599, for an OPS of 1.002, 32.3% higher than the league mark of .758 — the second best on his team, and 8th of 451 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 92.0 mph off the bat, hit 52.7% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 15.5% of them and made contact on 71.3% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 170 wRC+ puts his offence 70% above average. That comes to 1.6 dbWAR — +15.3 runs with the bat, -0.1 on the bases, -4.0 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+170
wOBA.419
ISO.284
BB%12.4%
WAR1.6

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2019. These four terms sum to +17.3 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting+15.3Baserunning-0.1Position-4.0Replacement+6.2
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

2.21.10.01516171819

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
20197818651112902344.315.403.599.284.37412.4%23.7%.419+15.31701.6
201811231283115102472.296.359.471.175.3607.7%23.1%.360+10.61341.9
20171305031121052058116.263.368.371.108.33611.5%23.1%.329+2.11051.9
20161384921181355045142.270.352.412.142.3729.1%28.9%.337+6.11101.9
20151214701091456131107.257.323.420.163.3106.6%22.8%.329+4.41132.2

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 LHP1171012951630.287.385.515.38325.6%
vs RHP6961226714.361.435.738.48020.3%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2019.

Loading 117 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 110 tracked batted balls in 2019. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
15.5%
17 barrels
Exit velocity
92.0
mph average
Max exit velo
110.0
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
52.7%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
40.0%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
10.7°
average
Barrel rate15.5%
Exit velocity92.0 mph
Hard hit rate52.7%
Contact rate71.3%

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.

.214.0957 AB.7508 AB.1258 AB.42119 AB.35317 AB.53315 AB.3758 AB.42119 AB.15413 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 David Freese 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 situations186.315.403.599.419
Bases empty1049130661225.330.413.615.429
Runner on first45401236512.300.378.550.391
Runners on8271215231119.296.390.577.406
RISP3731921767.290.405.613.423

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

Head to head

Put David Freese beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
David Freese

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.