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Zach Cole

2026
Astros· LF · bats L · throws R· 53 plate appearances
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Grade

His grade shows how good he has been, and at what.
C+better than 57% of hitters at creating bases

His season is in line with his established level.

Aggressive Power

Big pop, rarely takes a walk.

Makes some of the hardest contact around

Zach Cole squares the ball up. He hits it hard more often than 80% of qualified hitters. The strikeouts pile up, though. Only 3% of qualified hitters strike out more often. This is an early read, on only 53 plate appearances so far.

53 plate appearances · data through 2026-09-27.

How to read this chart
Each spoke is a skill estimate adjusted for sample size, not a raw season stat, and farther out is better. A ↓ marks a stat where a lower number is better, and its spoke is flipped so farther out still means better. The middle ring marks the league median and the outer ring the league best. EB/PA is estimated bases, HR% home runs, BB% walks and K% strikeouts, each per plate appearance, and Hard-hit% is balls hit 95 mph or harder. Percentiles compare him with 534 qualified hitters, the ones with 50 or more plate appearances.

Plays like…

Each of these hitters shares his archetype and sits closest to him in EB/PA. Pick one to see him side by side with Zach Cole.

Colt KeithTigersBrandon MarshPhilliesJared YoungMetsEdmundo SosaPhillies

Hitter type

See what kind of hitter he is, next to the rest of the league.

Hitter type

He gives away far more at-bats than most, and he hits the ball hard far more often than most.

League best:BB% − K% Josue De Paula (14.3%)Hard-hit% Yohandy Morales (62.5%)

How to read this chart
Two skills separate hitting styles: not giving away at-bats (walk rate minus strikeout rate) and squaring the ball up (hard-hit rate). Up and to the right is better on both. Every dot is a hitter with at least 40 plate appearances this season, and dot size tracks plate appearances. Click any dot to open that hitter's page.
 Zach ColeLeague medianPercentile
Bases per ball in play(higher = better).717.511—
Walk rate(higher = better)2%8%7th
Strikeout rate(lower = better)40%23%3rd

A higher percentile is better, and the 99th is the top of the league.

Platoon splits

See how he hits left-handed and right-handed pitchers.

Platoon splits (EB/PA)

He hits righties better than lefties, by 0.084 EB/PA.

50% probable range: +0.059 to +0.111

vs LHP6 PA0.382

vs LHP: shrunk estimate 0.382 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.351 to 0.415, based on 6 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.100 EB/PA. League median vs LHP: 0.424 EB/PA.

His raw rate vs LHP (0.100) is off this scale. Small samples can push a raw rate this far, which is why the dot, the shrunk estimate, is the number to trust.

vs RHP47 PA0.466

vs RHP: shrunk estimate 0.466 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.440 to 0.492, based on 47 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.488 EB/PA. League median vs RHP: 0.433 EB/PA.

0.3340.3780.4220.4660.509
← worsebetter →
Above league medianBelow50% probable rangeHis raw rateMiddle half of the league

His split is about typical for a lefty bat (median 0.078). Against lefties he sits below the league median, which is a real platoon weakness.

He sits in the league's bottom quarter vs lefties and the league's middle half vs righties.

How to read this chart
  • Each dot is his estimate against that hand, with its 50% probable range as the bar. Higher is better.
  • The diamond is his raw rate, which small samples make noisy, so the simulator pulls the dot toward a more trustworthy value.
  • The dashed tick is the league median, and the shaded strip is the middle half of hitters with 50 or more plate appearances.
  • Tap or hover a mark for its number. LHP and RHP are left- and right-handed pitchers. More on the About page

How he hits

See what his contact is worth and what pitchers throw him.

He hits the ball to the pull side most often, and that's where he does the most damage.

Best batted balls

Every ball Zach Cole put in play this season is drawn where it landed.
hit · out
EBlowhigh
vs Yoshinobu YamamotoHome run
107 mph · 27° · worth 4.0 bases
05/04 vs Dodgers
vs Tony SantillanHome run
102 mph · 30° · worth 3.9 bases
05/08 vs Reds
vs Jacob deGromHome run
96 mph · 33° · worth 3.6 bases
05/16 vs Rangers
vs Jack LeiterOutUnlucky out
102 mph · 24° · worth 1.8 bases
05/15 vs Rangers
vs Blake TreinenSingle
110 mph · 12° · worth 1.5 bases
05/06 vs Dodgers

Luck check

One of his outs came on a ball the simulator values at 1.5 bases or more.

vs Jack LeiterOutUnlucky out
102 mph · 24° · worth 1.8 bases
05/15 vs Rangers
How to read this chart
Dot color is estimated bases (EB), what the contact was worth no matter what the defense did with it. Darker means more bases, so a dark hollow ring in the outfield is a crushed ball that got caught. Tap or hover a dot or a row to link the two, and use the ▶ links to watch a play on Baseball Savant.

Performance by pitch type

2026 · 219 pitches

Each row shows the bases he adds per 100 pitches of one type, against the league.

← below league medianabove league median →
Four-Seam Fastball (68 pitches)
−3.3
Lg median −0.4Lg best +8.7
Other (151 pitches)

+1.2 bases per 100 · no single-type league comparison

Above league medianBelowMiddle half of the leagueLg medianLg best
How to read this chart
Each row is the bases he adds per 100 pitches of that type, on the same scale as the pitcher pages’ “saved/cost per 100” but from the hitter’s side. Every pitch counts. Taking a ball adds value, whiffing loses it, and the pitch that ends the plate appearance scores its outcome against what that count usually produces. A value of +3.5 means his results against that pitch have been worth about 3.5 extra bases per 100 seen. Higher is better. Types with fewer than 50 pitches seen pool into “Other”.

Swing

See how fast he swings and what he changes with two strikes. League tracking starts in 2024.

Swing at a glance

2026 · data through 2026-09-27
Bat speed · 94 swings
75.3 mph
Lg median 71.1 mph
Slowest: S. Kwan (61.8 mph)Fastest: J. Caminero (78.4 mph)
Lg median

He swings faster than most hitters. His swing length and attack angle both sit in the league's middle range. With two strikes, he changes his bat speed less than most hitters. His bat travels on a fairly typical path.

Attack angle
11.0°
Lg median 9.6°
Swing length
7.3 ft
Lg median 7.3 ft
Swing path tilt
32.6°
Lg median 32.4°
Middle half of the league
How to read this chart
  • Bat speed counts competitive swings only, so bunts and check swings under 50 mph are left out.
  • Swing length is how far the sweet spot of the bat travels during the swing. Attack angle is the bat’s upward or downward tilt through the zone.
  • Swing path tilt is how steep the bat’s path is.
  • None of these is better or worse on its own. Swing style trades power against contact, and the fastest and slowest swings in the league both belong to stars. More on the About page

Best games

These are his biggest games this season.

Best games

These are his best games this season, ranked by bases above replacement.

Multi-season trends · Zach Cole

Compared with last season, his HR% is down and his BB% is down.

Actual rates show what happened on the field, season by season.