Matt Davidson keeps walking

In yesterday’s loss, Matt Davidson reached a milestone of sorts. No, it didn’t have anything to do with his silver sombrero. He got his 19th walk, matching his total for last season.

I touched on Davidson’s change in approach last month. While the numbers have evened off a bit due to a small slump to start May, they’re still in a nice place. His fWAR is at 0.9 mainly because of being a DH, but his .394 wOBA and 149 wRC+ are both good enough for 12th best in the AL, along with having the seventh-best BB% in the league.

Sitting right behind Davidson in wRC+ for the White Sox is Yoan Moncada, and there’s some oddness I haven’t quite decided what to make of yet. Along with Moncada’s 136 wRC+ comes a .407 BABIP. This would usually indicate that Moncada’s stats will eventually come crashing down, but there seems to be a good explanation for the BABIP so far. Moncada has an average exit velocity of 95.0, good for sixth-best in the majors. Add in a team-high 14 barrels, and things start making sense.

While the new and newly improved guys are doing great, Jose Abreu is not far behind. He’s second on the team in exit velocity and barrels (tied with Davidson) at 13. This might be a good summer to go and sit in the bleachers on the South Side, because the chance of a souvenir seems pretty high on any given night.