The Houston Astros are a team that has no lack of story lines to discuss. They currently have the top two front runners for the AL CY young anchoring the top of their rotation, and went out and grabbed another ace at the deadline, in Zach Greinke, to be their NUMBER 3 option. They have rookie sensation Yordan Alvarez hitting moonshots seemingly every other at bat and well on his way to winning the clubs 3rd ever rookie of the year award. Justin Verlander just threw his 3rd career no-hitter. They have benefited from a huge resurgence from Jose Altuve, who is 4th in MLB WAR and 3rd in WRC+ since the All- Star Break. Most importantly, they have a 10 ½ game lead on the division. The Astros seemingly can do no wrong and Vegas currently gives them the best odds at capturing there 2nd World Series in 3 years. However, there is one piece on this Astros ball club whose contribution I feel has gone a little under appreciated, or rather unnoticed. Quietly having the best season of his career, this piece is no other than Alex Bregman.

Bregman is currently on pace to set career highs in Homeruns, Runs, RBI’s, OBP, WRC+, BB rate, wOBA, and SLG % this season and has been a catalyst in this Houston Lineup since opening day. A-Bregs can partially attribute these new career highs to an improved plate approach and a huge spike in his ability to make hard contact and punish baseballs. In terms of approach, Bregman is supporting a career best O-swing % and O-contact % which is allowing him to dial in on pitches inside the zone and lay off pitches that he is unable to get the barrel on. This has contributed to the best K:BB ratio of his career at 72:94, which puts him in the top 2% of the league in terms of walk rate, and top 7% of the league in terms of strikeout rate. Another change that Bregman has implemented this year is in launch angle, which has increased 2.4 degrees from last year which has contributed to his career high HR/FB rate of 17.6%! Now some might think that with this change in launch angle, Bregman might be sacrificing some hard contact for the additional increase in pop, but on the contrary, the effect has been opposite. Bregmans hard hit rate this year is at 44.0% which is an 8.6% increase from last year and a 7.4% increase from his career average, which is an insane boost that has been fueled by his approach to attack more hittable pitches. It would also be easy to attribute these improvements to the bouncy ball but considering this is the greatest WRC+ of his career, which is a measurement against the performance of the rest of the league, it is safe to say that Bregmans improvements have been of his own doing. Now with a month to go until the post-season, and the Astros gearing up for a title run, Bregman may be the hottest he’s ever been and looks poised to carry his team deep into October.

So how hot was Bregman this August? Well let’s start with all the categories that Bregman led the AL in: AVG (.404), OBP (.487), wOBA (.500), WAR (2.2), and WRC+ which was an astronomical 224!

Bregmans August Slash:

Bregman did all this while being 5th in the Majors in k% and propelled his Houston Astros to their best month since April with a 19-9 record. Bregman also provided gold glove defense across multiple positions, as with the injury to Carlos Correa, Bregman was easily able to transition over to shortstop which was the position he played at LSU in his college days. In short Bregman was a man possessed. He was 4th in win probability added in the month of August, which is even more impressive considering the murderers row of a lineup he finds himself in the heart of. He had 13 multi- hit games and successfully raised his average from .265 to .290 in the span of a month, which if the season ended today, would be a career high. Something even more impressive about Bregmans August is that he only struck out 11 times. What’s also interesting is that his HR/FB rate of 14.3% for the month was well below his season average and his hard hit rate was pretty much right in line with what he has produced this season. Perhaps the former 2nd overall pick can sustain some level of this production moving forward as there was nothing out of the ordinary in his GB/LD/FB rates that would suggest it’s playing a role in this crazy hot streak.

In summary, Bregman was getting on base basically every other plate appearance this August and was an absolute nightmare for pitchers to try and figure out. August was far and away the 25yrd old stars best month, though it shouldn’t be lost that Bregman is also in the middle of a career season. It’s scary to think that the 25 year old is just starting to break into his ceiling’s potential, and if not for some guy who wears no. 27 in LA, I think Bregmans season would be getting a lot more attention. Not only a career year, but a potential MVP season.