DataBaseball
2026
Brett Nicholas headshot

C · 2017

Brett Nicholas

Age
29
B/T
L/R
Height
6' 2"
Weight
220 lb
Born
July 18, 1988 in Phoenix, AZ, USA
MLB debut
April 11, 2016
dbWAR
.6
3 season(s)
PA
65
AVG
.238
OBP
.262
SLG
.397
wRC+
67
100 = avg

Brett Nicholas is a catcher for the Texas Rangers. In 2017 he hit 2 home runs and knocked in 11 RBIs, notching 15 hits across 65 plate appearances in 21 games. His batting average was .238, 6.6% lower than the league average of .255. He reached base at a .262 clip and slugged .397, for an OPS of .658, 12.3% lower than the league mark of .750. He averaged 86.1 mph off the bat, hit 28.9% of balls in play at 95 mph or better and made contact on 75.6% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 67 wRC+ puts his offence 33% below average. That comes to 0.1 dbWAR — -2.3 runs with the bat, -0.0 on the bases, +1.3 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, 2017.

wRC+67
wOBA.282
ISO.159
BB%3.1%
WAR.1

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2017. These four terms sum to +1.1 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-2.3Baserunning-0.0Position+1.3Replacement+2.2
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

0.50.20.01617

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
20172165152110213.238.262.397.159.2713.1%20.0%.282-2.3670.1
201614451124049.275.356.550.275.3108.9%20.0%.389+2.41390.5

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2017101.0000540036.003.165.000.00.0826720.0

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2017. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP12111013.091.167.182.16525.0%
vs RHP5352142110.269.283.442.30918.9%
Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2017. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHB3220001.000.6671.500.7140.0%
vs RHB553000.600.6001.000.6820.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2017.

Loading 47 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 45 tracked batted balls in 2017. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
0.0%
0 barrels
Exit velocity
86.1
mph average
Max exit velo
107.4
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
28.9%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
40.0%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
16.6°
average
Barrel rate0.0%
Exit velocity86.1 mph
Hard hit rate28.9%
Contact rate75.6%

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, 2017.

.1111 AB1 AB2 AB3 AB.1258 AB7 AB4 AB6 AB4 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 .254.

Situational hitting

How Brett Nicholas 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 situations65.238.262.397.282
Bases empty373670018.194.216.250.206
Runner on first · thin151531303.200.200.467.276
Runners on2827821115.296.321.593.383
RISP · thin131251812.417.462.750.507

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, 2017.

Pitch sequencing

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

ShowBatter
Four-seam

Select a count to see exactly what Brett Nicholas throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, and how often it misses in 2017.

Four-Seam Fastball68.8%1166.91,54736.4%0.0%
Brett Nicholas'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 Brett Nicholas beside up to three others.

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Brett Nicholas
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.