P · 2016
Joel De La Cruz
- Age
- 27
- B/T
- R/R
- Height
- 6' 1"
- Weight
- 240 lb
- Born
- June 9, 1989 in Haina, Dominican Republic
- MLB debut
- June 29, 2016
- dbWAR
- -.4 2 season(s)
- PA
- 18
- AVG
- .188
- OBP
- .188
- SLG
- .188
- wRC+
- -6 100 = avg
Joel De La Cruz is a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. In 2016 he hit 0 home runs and knocked in 1 RBI, notching 3 hits across 18 plate appearances in 11 games. His batting average was .188, 26.6% lower than the league average of .255. He reached base at a .188 clip and slugged .188, for an OPS of .375, 49.3% lower than the league mark of .739. He averaged 83.4 mph off the bat, hit 28.6% of balls in play at 95 mph or better and made contact on 46.9% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his -6 wRC+ puts his offence 106% below average. That comes to -0.2 dbWAR — -2.3 runs with the bat, -0.0 on the bases, +0.0 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, 2016.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2016. These four terms sum to -1.7 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.
Batting
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 11 | 18 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | .188 | .188 | .188 | .000 | .375 | 0.0% | 44.4% | .164 | -2.3 | -6 | -0.2 | — |
Pitching
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 22 | 9 | 62.2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 65 | 34 | 37 | 22 | 4.88 | 5.19 | 1.39 | 5.3 | 3.2 | 117 | 124 | -0.3 | — |
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 75.0% |
| vs RHP | 14 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | .250 | .250 | .250 | .219 | 35.7% |
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHB | 135 | 123 | 32 | 5 | 10 | 16 | .260 | .319 | .455 | .335 | 11.9% |
| vs RHB | 141 | 124 | 33 | 5 | 12 | 21 | .266 | .333 | .476 | .350 | 14.9% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2016.
Loading 9 batted balls…
Contact quality
How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 7 tracked batted balls in 2016. Percentiles are against qualified batters.
- Barrel rate
- 0.0% 0 barrels
- Exit velocity
- 83.4 mph average
- Max exit velo
- 97.0 mph, hardest hit
- Hard hit
- 28.6% 95 mph or better
- Sweet spot
- 28.6% 8–32° launch
- Launch angle
- -1.7° average
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.
Situational hitting
How Joel De La Cruz hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.
| Situation | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 18 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .188 | .188 | .188 | .164 |
| Bases empty · thin | 7 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .143 | .143 | .143 | .125 |
| Runner on first · thin | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Runners on · thin | 11 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .222 | .222 | .222 | .195 |
| RISP · thin | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .400 | .400 | .400 | .351 |
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, 2016.
Pitch sequencing
What Joel De La Cruz throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.
Select a count to see exactly what Joel De La Cruz throws in it.
Pitch arsenal
What he throws, how hard, and how often it misses in 2016.
| Sinker | 504 | 91.4 | 1,849 | 40.5% | 12.3% | |
| Slider | 246 | 86.0 | 684 | 44.7% | 24.8% | |
| Changeup | 241 | 84.5 | 1,613 | 42.7% | 29.3% | |
| Four-Seam Fastball | 15 | 91.7 | 1,391 | 20.0% | 0.0% |
Head to head
Put Joel De La Cruz beside up to three others.
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.