Sometimes, on my long days of teaching, my mind wanders from my classroom to ponder some of life’s great questions. Why are people so hateful? Do we really have free will? How in the heck did Chad Pinder absolutely own Cole Hamels?
Pinder, a career Oakland Athletic, was a fine ballplayer. Yet, despite English colloquialism making your brain want to read fine (in italics), I mean it literally. He was fine. After getting a cup of coffee in the majors in 2016, he blossomed (… that feels strong) into an above-average run producer in 2017 and 2018 (~6% better than league average). In the other 5 years of his career, he averaged an 88 OPS+* while also statting out to ~.5 rWAR per season of his 7-year career (though, his 2018 is doing some heavy lifting with 2.1 rWAR).
*-OPS+ is a stat where 100 is league average. An OPS+ of 88 means Pinder is 12% below league average as an offensive asset
Chad Pinder has a career OPS of .711.
Chad Pinder has been above replacement level in 5 professional seasons, but only above “average” once.
Chad Pinder’s full name is Chadwick Hudson Pinder.
…and Chadwick Hudson Pinder absolutely dominated Cole Hamels?
Let’s first quantify what I mean by “dominated”. In 14 career plate appearances against one another, Pinder is 8-10, with 2 walks and 2 HBP. In those 8 hits, Pinder has 2 singles, 3 doubles, and 3 home runs scattered across the 2016-2018 seasons. These statistics culminate in a triple slash of .800/.857/2.000 (that would be an OPS+ of 383, or 283% better than league average)
The domination was on from the very first at-bat. On September 23rd, 2016. The Texas Rangers and the Oakland Athletics squared off in what turned out to be the clinching game in the Rangers’ quest to win the AL West. Pinder, playing in his 16th career game, had not gotten off to a particularly blazing start. He stepped into the batter’s box against 4x All-Star Cole Hamels sporting a career OPS of .456. Hamels, on the other hand, was in the midst of another spectacular season. Entering this, his 30th start of the year, he sported a 3.42 ERA with 187 strikeouts across 186.2 innings. Hamels toed the rubber to attempt to clinch the division title for the second straight season (though albeit, in a much less dramatic fashion than in game 162 in 2015).
But, Chad Pinder looked at those statistics and thought, “I’ll show him that my 4 letter nickname is superior. Who even is Colbert anyways?”
In the bottom of the 2nd with a man on first, Pinder laced a ball to right (.750 xBA*) for his 3rd career Major League double. Then, in the bottom of the 5th, Pinder added his 4th career two-bagger by grounding a double to left (.450 xBA). However, despite Pinder (and Kendall Gravemen also throwing 6 perfect innings), the A’s still fell to the Rangers 3-0 clinching the 2016 AL West title for Texas.
*xBA is a metric designed to show “Expected Batting Average”, in other words, it’s a measure of the true quality of contact.
Not getting hits off Cole Hamels is for suckers.
– Chad Pinder, probably
Pinder apparently took this loss personally and vowed to demolish Cole Hamels one pitch at a time. Pinder didn’t get to see Hamels again until the following August, but he wasted no time taking out his transgressions by blasting a baseball 102.6 mph off the bat and depositing a souvenir over the center field wall 421 feet away (.910 xBA). Then, just to really ensure Hamels didn’t forget his tomfoolery, Pinder sent a second ball over the wall in the 3rd inning by barrelling up a Cole Hamels change-up with an exit velocity of 103.9 mph over O.Co’s towering wall in left-center (.950 xBa). Pinder once again stepped up to the plate against Hamels in the 5th inning, but the Rangers realized that Pinder eats Cole-O’s for breakfast and wisely walked him on 5 pitches.
For those keeping score at home, after 2 professional seasons, Chad Pinder was 4-4, with 2 HR, 2 2B, and a BB against Cole Hamels. A 1.000/1.000/3.000 triple slash.
Coming into the 2018 season, one thing was on everyone’s mind – How would Chadwick Pinder fare against Colbert Hamels in the upcoming season. The answer? Well, it’s Chad Pinder… what do you think?
Pinder continued to go nuclear at nearly every opportunity he had against Hamels, starting April 4th, 2018. On the first Hamels pitch he saw, he tattooed a double to right center (102.7 exit velo., .700 xBA) but was left stranded on second base. He then came to the plate in the 3rd inning and drove in Oakland’s only run of the day (himself) after unleashing a 102.9 mph, 384 foot (.790 xBA) home run over the wall in Oakland. Hamels once again threw in the towel and walked Pinder when he came to the plate for their final matchup in the 5th inning.
Running stats: 6-6, 3 HR, 3 2B, 2 BB. 1.000/1.000/3.000 after 8 plate appearances. He has reached base all 8 times he’s faced Cole Hamels in 3 games across 3 seasons. Something else of note, his softest hit ball? Only 98.7 mph.
Pinder finally “cooled down” on his first trip to Texas. In the first, he “only” lined a single (103.3 mph, .770xBA). It was at this point when Hamels had to let his frustrations be know, plunking Pinder with an 80-mph Curveball. This extended Pinder’s on-base streak to 10 straight at-bats to start his career against Cole Hamels. Then, on the 11th plate appearances, hell froze over. After stepping to the plate in the 5th inning, Pinder was set down on 4 pitches by Cole Hamels, our proverbial Goliath had dethroned David with a triumphant swinging strikeout to keep the game tied.
Running stats: 7-8, 3 HR, 3 2B, 1 1B, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 1K. .875/.909/2.375 after 11 plate appearances. He still has failed to put a ball in play with an exit velocity of less than 97.8.
As the Rangers dressed to play the A’s on July 23rd, 2018, there were many threads to follow. Were the Rangers going to trade Cole Hamels? They appeared to be collapsing into a rebuild and Hamels would likely do them more good on the move than he would on the mound. As it turned out, this was Cole Hamels final start as a Ranger. Yet, before the crowd could even get settled in, Pinder had already gotten on base against Hamels after getting hit by a pitch. Then, in the 2nd (after the A’s touched up Hamels for 4 runs), Pinder came to the plate and softly lined an 81 mph single over the infield’s head (.990 xBA) to continue his utter domination of Hamels. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), Pinder grounded out to the shortstop in his final career plate appearance against Hamels, dragging his SLG% all the way down to 2.000
Final stats: 8-10, 3 HR, 3 2B, 2 1B, 2 BB, 2 HBP, 1K. .800/.857/2.857 after 14 plate appearances.
The statistics are mind-blowing.
- For any hitter that faced Hamels more than one time, Pinder had the 5th highest OPS (though, the other players had 3, 3, 3, and 2 plate appearances respectively compared too Pinder’s 14)
- For any pitcher that Chad Pinder ever faced more than once, he had the 4th highest OPS against Hamels (2, 3, 3, 14 plate appearances).
- If you set the minimums to 4, Hamels was never hit harder by anyone and Pinder never hit anyone harder.
- Across every hitter vs. pitcher matchup in MLB history (min. 10 PA) Pinder has the 15th-highest OPS (2.857). If you raise the minimum to 14 (the number of times they faced one another), Pinder becomes 1st.
Let me repeat that. No hitter in Major League history has ever hit a pitcher better than Chad Pinder hit Cole Hamels when the two squared off as many times as Hamels and Pinder did. Ever. In all of history.
Chad Pinder, cheers to you.
I will be honest with you, I am not entirely sure what I want to do with this blog. Do I want to have a bit? Do I want to write about whatever my heart desires? Do I want to tell you about some absolutely unhinged commentary my students provided today? Who’s to say. At the very least, I firmly believe this story is a microcosm of what is so wonderful about baseball. If you dig hard enough, these odd (and albeit, slightly cherry-picked) statistical quirks are just waiting to be found, like little nuggets of gold in a pile of mud or, perhaps more aptly, like Diamonds in the Rough. As is true of much of what I do, someone else could always put it more succinctly – so in the words of the great Sarah Langs,
“BASEBALL IS THE BEST”.
Extra Innings
- I’ve never met Sarah personally, but she is amazing. Sarah was recently diagnosed with ALS. She has a GoFundMe page set up in her name to help with her treatment and future ALS research. If you are able, please donate here. Additionally, if you would like an amazing shirt for a good cause, check out this “Baseball is the Best” shirt where proceeds from each sale will benefit Project ALS. #SarahStrong #ForSlangs
A Triple Shy 