Umpires don't like Guardians star Steven Kwan

Steven Kwan is one of the best pure hitters in baseball.

Imagine if the umpires gave the Cleveland Guardians' All-Star left fielder a few breaks.

A fascinating statistic made the rounds on social media on Friday. It comes with a telling graphic.

Kwan has had more strikes called on him on pitches off the plate away than any other left-handed batter since 2022.

And it's by a wide margin, Kwan at 144 such calls and the next-closest player at 88.

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Here's a look:

That's pretty wild to look at.

There are a lot of factors here, of course. A batter that takes more pitches in general will have more called strikes against them. And the leadoff hitter Kwan is notorious for not swinging at the first pitch he sees.

It's still quite the margin, one that can't be helpful. Every strike in an at bat is a key leverage point in favor of the pitcher.

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This statistic goes back to the year Kwan broke into the majors, and in the four seasons he's spent in MLB, Kwan is a .285 hitter with only two fewer walks than strikeouts, so he clearly hasn't been doomed by these calls. But those stats would probably be even a bit better if the pitches away off the plate were always called as such to Kwan.

Maybe when the robot umpires come, Kwan will lift his batting average and on-base percentage even higher. That'd be a nice reward for all of his hard work to succeed in the current umpiring setup.

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