Tim Benz: Adam Frazier's unique skill set leads to a remarkable start in 2021

Monday night’s 3-2 Pittsburgh Pirates loss to the Washington Nationals was rare.

Not because the Pirates lost. We’re all used to that.

It was rare because it didn’t feature a hit from Adam Frazier. It was just the second time in his last 16 games that the Pirates second baseman failed to get a base hit en route to an 0-for-3 evening.

Frazier has been brilliant at the plate this season. A standout star in what has otherwise been a sea of frustration for the 23-42 Bucs.

Entering play Monday, Frazier was tied for first in all of Major League Baseball in doubles (23) and first in hits (85). He ranked third in the National League in batting (.336), fifth in OBP (.396), sixth in total bases (120), eighth in OPS (.871) and tied for eighth in extra-base hits (28).

As a result, the 29-year-old is second among National League second basemen in the voting for the All-Star game.

But there’s been a unique quality to Frazier’s uniquely stellar start.

Frazier isn’t very big. And his trademark — when he’s dialed in at the plate — has always been a short, efficient swing.

Yet Frazier’s plate coverage is excellent. Especially for a guy between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-10, with a compact swing that is quick to the ball.

He doesn’t have very long arms and rarely drops his hands down past the nob of the bat to loop it beyond the strike zone. However, Frazier somehow manages to drape every quadrant of the strike zone with a sharp, sudden, punch toward the baseball.

In 2021, his pitch identification and delivery of the bat-head to barrel the ball consistently is something to watch.

The YouTube broadcast of the Pirates game against the Los Angeles Dodgers Thursday did a fantastic job crystallizing Frazier’s natural plate coverage. Go to 18:21 of that link and you’ll see almost nothing but red throughout the strike zone — and even slightly out of it — when it comes to Frazier’s batting average by zone this season.

As of that afternoon, he was .467 up-and-in within the strike zone, .375 down and away. The outer-third middle was .375. The inner-third middle was .333. He was also at .333 for the top of the zone, while clipping along at .455 at the bottom.

Even out of the zone, when Frazier chases and makes contact, he’s stinging pitches for hits. According to that heat map at the time, Frazier tracked at .333 out-and-away, .571 down-and-in and .409 down-and-away.

Pretty much the only areas where Frazier gets himself out in the strike zone is when he swings up-and-out (.231) and up-and-in out of the zone (.143).

“He has a short compact swing, and he has the willingness to battle with it,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said Monday. “He doesn’t need to be a big guy to do that. When he stays with that short, compact, line-drive swing, we see the results we are getting.”

When Frazier’s batting average dipped to .230 last year, Shelton says that positive trait is what left his approach.

“When he scuffled at times, he got away from that. It was something he did his entire career. And this year, he is doing it at a level no one else is even close to,” Shelton said.

Again, perhaps most notably, Frazier manages to strike the ball with authority wherever he swings despite not having the natural gift of a long, wiry frame or a rangy wingspan through the zone.

“This is not a big guy, but he handles the strike zone,” Shelton explained. “The reason he handles the strike zone is that he tries to make contact. … The plate coverage comes from that old-school mentality of ‘I’m going to grind out the at-bat and put the ball in play.’ I think we are going to see the game kind of transition back to that. And Adam Frazier is ahead of that, and that’s why he is a good player.”

And, hopefully, one that Pirates fans can enjoy while he is still here.

Or at least appreciate the talent he may bring in return at the trade deadline.