DataBaseball
2026
Eric Sogard headshot

2B · 2021

Eric Sogard

Age
35
B/T
L/R
Height
5' 10"
Weight
180 lb
Number
#28
Born
May 22, 1986 in Phoenix, AZ, USA
MLB debut
September 14, 2010
dbWAR
2.4
7 season(s)
PA
180
AVG
.249
OBP
.283
SLG
.314
wRC+
60
100 = avg

Eric Sogard is a second baseman for the Chicago Cubs. In 2021 he hit 1 home run and knocked in 12 RBIs, notching 42 hits across 180 plate appearances in 77 games. His batting average was .249, 1.9% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .283 clip and slugged .314, for an OPS of .597, 18.0% lower than the league mark of .728 — the worst on his team, and 411th of 463 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 82.6 mph off the bat, hit 15.0% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 0.7% of them and made contact on 87.9% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 60 wRC+ puts his offence 40% below average. That comes to -0.3 dbWAR — -8.5 runs with the bat, +0.0 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, 2021.

wRC+60
wOBA.261
ISO.065
BB%5.0%
WAR-.3

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2021. These four terms sum to -2.6 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-8.5Baserunning+0.0Position-0.1Replacement+6.0
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

2.20.8-0.6151718192021

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
202177180421123930.249.283.314.065.2935.0%16.7%.261-8.560-0.3
2020411282411001120.209.281.278.070.2428.6%15.6%.256-7.255-0.3
2019110442115134083863.290.353.457.167.3168.6%14.3%.345+8.31142.2
201851113130231223.134.241.165.031.17310.6%20.4%.197-11.116-0.6
2017882996831834537.273.393.378.104.31115.1%12.4%.348+5.81141.6
20151144019213762350.247.294.304.056.2835.7%12.5%.268-15.5670.0

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2021504.100073106.239.401.622.10.0146220-0.2

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2021. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP45429034.214.267.214.2248.9%
vs RHP135127331626.260.289.346.27319.3%
Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2021. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHB772000.286.286.286.2500.0%
vs RHB14135201.385.429.923.5527.1%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2021.

Loading 141 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 140 tracked batted balls in 2021. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
0.7%
1 barrels
Exit velocity
82.6
mph average
Max exit velo
102.3
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
15.0%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
27.9%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
10.1°
average
Barrel rate0.7%
Exit velocity82.6 mph
Hard hit rate15.0%
Contact rate87.9%

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, 2021.

.238.100.2508 AB.1258 AB.20010 AB.18211 AB.21119 AB.25016 AB.31619 AB.38526 AB.28614 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 .243.

Situational hitting

How Eric Sogard 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 situations180.249.283.314.261
Bases empty105992711612.273.314.354.295
Runner on first4140602113.150.171.175.155
Runners on757015011318.214.240.257.212
RISP343090925.300.324.367.283

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2021.

Pitch sequencing

What Eric Sogard throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter
Fastball

Select a count to see exactly what Eric Sogard throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, and how often it misses in 2021.

Fastball100.0%6866.61,63733.8%9.1%
Eric Sogard's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters.

Head to head

Put Eric Sogard beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Eric Sogard

Similar players

Nearest 2021 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.