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Zach Cole

2026
Astros· LF · bats L · throws R· 53 PA
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Grade

How good he's been, and at what
Bbetter than 60% 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 — harder contact than 76% of qualified hitters. The strikeouts pile up, though — only 2% of qualified hitters whiff more often. Early-season read — only 53 plate appearances so far.

53 plate appearances · data through 2026-08-22.

How to read this chart
Each spoke is a skill estimate adjusted for sample size — not raw season stats — so farther out = better. Spokes are the metric itself; ↓ marks a rate where a LOWER number is better. Percentiles vs. 499 qualified hitters — 50+ plate appearances.

Plays like…

Same archetype, nearest by rate — pick one to see him side by side with Zach Cole.

Willi CastroRockiesJared YoungMetsJackson ChourioBrewersSamuel BasalloOrioles

Hitter type

What kind of hitter he is, next to the league

Hitter type

Very free-swinging hitter with elite contact quality.

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 when he does put it in play (hard-hit rate). Every dot is a qualified hitter this season; dot size tracks plate appearances. Click any dot to open that hitter's page.
 Zach ColeLeague medianPercentile
Bases per ball in play(higher = better).717.50860th
Walk rate(higher = better)2%8%7th
Strikeout rate(lower = better)40%23%2nd

100th percentile = best in MLB.

Platoon splits

How he fares against lefties and righties

Platoon splits (EB/PA)

Better vs RHP than vs LHP by 0.083 EB/PA (modeled).

50% probable range: +0.063 to +0.103

vs LHP6 PA0.386

vs LHP: shrunk estimate 0.386 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.357 to 0.418, based on 6 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.100 EB/PA. League median vs LHP: 0.425 EB/PA.

Raw vs LHP rate (0.100) is off this scale — small samples like this are exactly why the shrunk estimate (the dot) is the trustworthy number, not the raw one.

vs RHP47 PA0.469

vs RHP: shrunk estimate 0.469 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.443 to 0.496, based on 47 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.488 EB/PA. League median vs RHP: 0.436 EB/PA.

0.3410.3840.4260.4690.512
← worsebetter →
Above league medianBelow50% probable rangeHis raw rateMiddle half of the league

About the typical split for a lefty bat (median 0.080). Against lefties he sits below the league median — a genuine platoon vulnerability.

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

How to read this chart
  • Tap or hover any mark for its number, or tab to a row for all of them.
  • His raw rate is the unshrunk number against that hand — small samples make it noisy, which is why the model pulls his estimate toward a more trustworthy value.
  • “Middle half of the league” is the 25th–75th percentile of all hitters against that hand.
  • Shrunk splits beat raw splits decisively at low PA counts and converge with them as playing time builds — individual platoon gaps need roughly 1,000+ PA vs a hand before the raw number alone can be trusted.

How he hits

What happens when he puts a ball in play

He hits the ball to the pull side most often, and that's where his hardest contact goes.

Best batted balls

Where every ball Zach Cole put in play landed this season.
hit · out
EBlowhigh
vs Yoshinobu YamamotoHome run
EV 107 mph · LA 27° · EB 4.0
05/04 vs Dodgers
vs Tony SantillanHome run
EV 102 mph · LA 30° · EB 3.9
05/08 vs Reds
vs Jacob deGromHome run
EV 96 mph · LA 33° · EB 3.6
05/16 vs Rangers
vs Jack LeiterOutRobbed
EV 102 mph · LA 24° · EB 1.8
05/15 vs Rangers
vs Blake TreinenSingle
EV 110 mph · LA 12° · EB 1.5
05/06 vs Dodgers

Luck check

Robbed once — a crushed ball the simulator scores as a near-certain hit that died in a glove.

vs Jack LeiterOutRobbed
EV 102 mph · LA 24° · EB 1.8
05/15 vs Rangers
How to read this chart
Dot color is estimated bases (EB) — what the contact was worth, regardless of what the defense did with it. 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

Bases he adds per 100 pitches of each type, against the league.

← below leagueabove league →
Four-Seam Fastball (68 pitches)
−3.3
Lg median −0.4Lg best +12.9
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
Bases added per 100 pitches of each type — the same scale as the pitcher pages’ “saved/cost per 100”, 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 the count’s expectation. Values are bases vs the league count-average: +3.5 means his results against that pitch have been worth about 3.5 extra bases per 100 seen. Types with fewer than 50 pitches seen pool into “Other”.

Swing

How fast he swings, and what he changes with two strikes. League tracking starts in 2024.

Swing at a glance

2026 · data through 2026-08-22
Bat speed · 94 swings
75.3 mph
Lg median 71.1 mph
Slowest: S. Kwan (61.9 mph)Fastest: J. Caminero (78.7 mph)
Lg median

Swings faster than most hitters. His swing length and attack angle both sit in the league's middle range. Changes his swing less than most hitters with two strikes. His bat travels on a fairly typical path.

Attack angle
11.0°
Lg median 9.4°
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
  • Competitive swings: bunts and checked-type swings under 50 mph are excluded, so these numbers sit a touch below the bat speeds Savant publishes, which use a different cut.
  • League tracking starts in 2024, and early 2024 has small gaps — about 93% of swings that season have a reading.
  • Swing length — how far the sweet spot of the bat travels during the swing.
  • Attack angle — the bat’s upward or downward tilt through the zone.
  • Swing path tilt — how steep the bat’s path is.
  • None of these is better or worse on its own — swing style trades power against contact (the fastest and slowest swings in the league both belong to stars).

Best games

His biggest games this year

Best games

His best games this season by bases above replacement.

Multi-season trends · Zach Cole

HR% down, BB% down vs last season

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