‘He looks pretty hitterish’: SF Giants’ Eldridge showing promising signs despite being hitless

LOS ANGELES Bryce Eldridge less than a week into his major-league career remains in search of his first hit That milestone among others should come in due time While still batting Eldridge has shown small glimpses of the promise that made him one of baseball s top prospects His at-bats have been good explained manager Bob Melvin of the Giants top prospect We d love for him to get his first hit and get that out of the way but he has not looked overmatched Eldridge has struck out in five of his plate appearances entering Friday his only time reaching base so far being a walk in Wednesday s win against the Diamondbacks Of the four times he s put the ball in play he s generated exit velocities of mph mph mph and mph Baseball Savant categories balls in play at least mph or faster as hard hit Eldridge won t continue to post an average exit velocity of mph Oneil Cruz leads the league at mph but it s been a peak at Eldridge s elite raw power To look at a much larger sample Eldridge posted elite batted-ball facts with Triple-A Sacramento being in the th percentile or better in barrel rate th average exit velocity th and hard-hit rate th per Prospect Savant In his third career plate appearance Eldridge inside-outed a four-seam fastball from the Diamondbacks Taylor Rashi At feet Eldridge s line drive would ve been a home run in of ballparks Unfortunately for Eldridge he was playing in one of the seven stadiums where it wouldn t clear the fences Center fielder Jorge Barrosa tracked it down and Eldridge s search for his first hit continued https sporty-clips mlb com SzQ eU fVjBZQUhRPT fRGdKUlVnSUNYMVlBQ FOWEFnQUhCRkFEQUFCWFcxa FWRnhSVlZBRFV dFhWQUpl mp There was also Thursday when Eldridge had his first plate appearance against a left-handed pitcher when he stepped to the plate to face the Dodgers Jack Dreyer With the count at - Dreyer elevated a slider that Eldridge smashed right into the awaiting glove of right fielder Teoscar Hern ndez https sporty-clips mlb com eHliMkJfVjBZQUhRPT fQkZWV JRWU VbFFBRDFjR FBQUhCQVZTQUFBRFZWTUFVRmRRQkZjQlVGVUdBZ VI mp As impressive as those small displays of pop has been Eldridge s ability to resist pitches out of the zone Eldridge s first two at-bats in the majors came against right-hander Zac Gallen a one-time All-Star with an assortment of secondaries Gallen s plan against Eldridge was simple spam him with changeups Gallen did get Eldridge to whiff on three pitches but the rookie had particular impressive takes on borderline changeups that just missed the zone https sporty-clips mlb com SzQ eU fVjBZQUhRPT fVUZJRkJsUUJVMU BVzFFQUF QUhWUUZTQUFOVEJsVUFCMWNNVWxBTVZ RlhBbEZl mp https sporty-clips mlb com SzQ eU fVjBZQUhRPT fRHdFQVhBRlhYZ VBQzF WEFnQUhVZ JSQUZrR dsTUFWRmRUVkFaVENRcGRDVlJU mp I think that s a good start facing a guy like him Eldridge noted after his major-league debut I had fun He had a good plan against me and it as fun to get to face him and I felt like I belonged I feel like I competed and did my best Explained Melvin after Eldridge s debut Too bad he didn t get the one hit there but certainly he didn t look like he was overmatched Didn t look nervous I m sure there were chosen nerves there but he looks pretty hitterish at the plate Given Eldridge s offensive profile there will likely dependably be a fair amount of strikeouts and whiffs in his tournament Over games in the minors Eldridge had a strikeout rate of percent partially the product of an equally high whiff rate With Triple-A Sacramento Eldridge had a whiff rate of percent per Prospect Savant placing him in the st percentile Strikeout rates and whiff rates generally remain consistent throughout a player s career With rare exceptions a high strikeout whiff athlete rarely evolves into a low strikeout whiff player But if Eldridge consistently taps into his power the Giants will be able to live with the swings and misses There s presumably going to be certain swing and miss but he s also going to make particular really loud contact as well explained president of baseball operations Buster Posey who began his career going -for- The majority of Eldridge s plate appearances for the remainder of the season will be against right-handers not left-handers All three of Eldridge s starts have been at designated hitter Melvin stated Eldridge could get a look at first base soon on days where a right-handed pitcher has started When left-hander Anthony Banda entered for the eighth inning on Thursday Melvin substituted Eldridge for Wilmer Flores When Clayton Kershaw made the final regular season start of career on Friday Eldridge was relegated to watching from the first-base dugout instead of testing himself against the future Hall of Famer Eldridge struggled against lefties in the minors last season posting a with three home runs over at-bats This season by contrast Eldridge had a slash line with four home runs over at-bats against left-handers in the minors Melvin reported Flores who has a career OPS against left-handers is going to play against lefties for now Next season Eldridge will likely get far more opportunities to face same-sided pitchers The sample is incredibly small but Eldridge has shown himself capable of holding his own against major-league pitching Over the next week he ll have his opportunities to show himself capable of damaging major-league pitching Worth noting Trevor McDonald will start for the Giants on Sunday Carson Whisenhunt back strain could pitch during the Giants final homestand of the season after pitching innings on Tuesday in a rehab start