Cubs Quick Hits: Cubs Hitters Crushed Fastballs Last Year

One of the unbroken aspects of the Cubs offense last year was an efficiency against really fast pitches. No other team had a higher batting average than the Cubs’ .290 mark, as Inside Edge noted.

As a team, the Cubs crushed high velocity fastballs.#Cubs #EverybodyIn pic.twitter.com/qhD0DW6kkd

— Inside Edge (@IE_MLB) February 25, 2019

That stellar average came despite the Cubs facing harder fastballs on average (93.3 mph) than any other team in the league. For the sake of reference, the Dodgers were second-to-last in terms of velo faced with a 92.6 mph average. The Cubs are at the top in part due to David Bote, who saw the highest average fastball velo in MLB (94.5 mph) last year.

Cubs batters also generated solid value against fastballs with a 0.36 wFB/C (scaled fastball run creation) that ranked third in the NL, behind only Nationals (0.48) and Dodgers (0.52).