AXE PRO PLAYER PROFILE: YORDAN ALVAREZ
Axe Pro Player Profiles - Sharing the experiences Pro players go through when making the switch to Axe. Just like you.
Yordan Alvarez is truly an out of this world elite hitter. In fact, his own teammate Jose Altuve has been quoted as saying "Yordan is the best hitter in the world." And his teammate Jeremy Pena says, "He's by far the best I've seen."
WHEN DID YORDAN MAKE THE SWITCH?
YORDAN MADE THE SWITCH BACK TO AXE late last season on September 5, 2023. Yordan was doing fine at this point. In fact, he had a .305 Batting Average and .888 in his last 100 plate appearances with round. Nobody would have faulted him for cruising into the postseason as-is. Or taking the common perception of why would the best hitter on a team switch to Axe when he is already great? Especially not this late tin the season going into the playoffs. Yet, Yordan Alvarez made the switch to Axe. He didn't settle. He was willing to take the risk to find better. To be bold even when he was already great. Let us be the first to tell you, the switch paid off, handsomely.
HUGE SUCCESS..... What followed was one of the greatest offensive heaters in baseball history. Yordan hit a 109 mph, 441 ft. home run in his first game with Axe on Sept. 5th. He stayed on fire the rest of the month and was awarded the September Offensive Player of the Month. He then continued that success with and even greater performance in the playoffs. One which he produced one of the greatest offensive performances in postseason history.
FIRST GAME BOMB
Sept. 5th 109 mph, 441 ft. Axe Home Run
PLAYER OF THE MONTH
September Player Of The Month - Awarded the best offensive player after the switch
HISTORIC PLAYOFF PERFORMANCE
Making Playoff History - Yordan put up arguably the greatest postseason offensive numbers after the switch
SO WHAT DOES THE DATA SAY ABOUT THE SWITCH?
Let's take a deeper look at his incredible success after switching to Axe from his round handle bat.
FIRST 100 PLATE APPEARANCES
Yordan Alvarez had 100 Axe Plate Appearances from the day he made the switch up until his last at bat in the regular season. Let's compare those 100 Axe PA's to the previous 100 round PA's. Since 100 round PA's fell in the middle of a game, we will use the full game for that day, 103 PA's.
100 PA's Before (Round) vs 100 PA's After (Axe)
MONSTER INCREASES! Yordan was putting up good numbers with round before. But just look at the crazy eye-popping numbers after be made the switch.
DEEPER DIVE - WHAT STATCAST TELLS US
The deeper statcast data tells an even greater story of what happened after the switch. Yordan had a huge change in barreling up balls and hit the ball harder more often. This led to higher exit velocity and further hit distance. The data is much fun to look at.
Barrels: A batted ball with the perfect combination of exit velocity and launch angle, or the most high-value batted balls. (A barrel has a minimum Expected Batting Average of .500 and Expected Slugging Percentage of 1.500.)
Hard-Hit: Statcast defines a 'hard-hit ball' as one hit with an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher, and a player's "hard-hit rate" is simply showing the percentage of batted balls that were hit at 95 mph or more.
YORDAN'S HISTORIC PLAYOFFS
Yordan Alvarez had a total of 49 Plate Appearances in the 2023 Playoffs. All were with Axe. The instant success we saw in the final 100 regular season Axe PA's continued in a massive way during his epic playoff run. Check it out and enjoy!
HISTORIC! Look at the crazy eye-popping numbers after be made the switch.
WILD FACT: In the 53 years since wRC+ can be tracked. Minimum of 40 plate appearances, no player, other than Rickey Henderson in 1988, has ever posted a higher wRC+ in the playoffs. EVER.
Fangraphs About wRC+: wRC+ measures how effective a hitter is at creating runs. It is the most comprehensive rate statistic used to measure hitting performance because it takes into account the varying weights of each offensive action and then adjusts them for the park and league context in which they took place.
DEEPER DIVE - WHAT STATCAST TELLS US
INCREDIBLE.
SOME HIGHLIGHTS
2 Home Run Game - 100 mph
Another 2 Home Run Game - 110mph
3 Hit Game 7 - Hitting to all fields
SOME GAME-USED BAT FUN
Here is one of Yordan's game-used bats from the 2023 season that went for auction. Special Note: At Axe, Victus is one of our MLB bat licensee partners. They pay to license our Axe handle so they can to service our Axe pros for us.
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT YORDAN
“He just has a good approach,” hitting coach Alex Cintrón said. “The guy is smart. He knows what he’s looking for. He can be looking for a heater, change his mind and look for an off-speed. The guy knows what he’s doing. He’s really good. He’s a good hitter, but he’s smart. He has a really good plan at the plate, pitch by pitch. When you’re an elite hitter, you do that.”
“We have a running joke where he hits homers and we’re just in the dugout looking at him,” shortstop Jeremy Pena said, with his mouth agape and face settled into a blank stare. “What he’s doing, he’s by far the best I’ve seen.” - The Athletic
"I think he’s the best hitter in baseball right now." - Jose Altuve
CHECK OUT THE HOME RUNS
| DATE | HR | VIDEO | |
| Playoffs | 10/16/2023 | HR | Click here |
| Playoffs | 10/16/2023 | HR | Click here |
| Playoffs | 10/10/2023 | HR | Click here |
| Playoffs | 10/8/2023 | HR | Click here |
| Playoffs | 10/7/2023 | HR | Click here |
| Playoffs | 10/7/2023 | HR | Click here |
| 9/27/2023 | HR | Click here | |
| 9/27/2023 | HR | Click here | |
| 9/25/2023 | HR | Click here | |
| 9/24/2023 | HR | Click here | |
| 9/17/2023 | HR | Click here | |
| 9/13/2023 | HR | Click here | |
| 9/9/2023 | HR | Click here | |
| 9/6/2023 | HR | Click here | |
| 9/5/2023 | HR | Click here |