Brandon Belt’s More Disciplined Approach Leading to Early-Season Success

Brandon Belt earned a big new contract, and with a more disciplined approach at the plate, he is becoming an even bigger contributor for the San Francisco Giants.

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If there was a pretty well-defined weakness in Brandon Belt‘s game, it was always strikeouts. While Belt has always been a solid contributor when his black cloud of bad luck allows him to be on the field, striking out was his achilles heel. In 2015, he led the San Francisco Giants with 147 strikeouts, and his 26.4 percent strikeout rate was below only Marlon Byrd (who played 39 games with the Giants after a trade) and Andrew Susac (who played 52 games as the backup catcher).

Belt has shown himself to be a completely different version of himself in the early goings of the 2016 season. Now equipped with a six-year deal worth $79 million that erases the doubt that he isn’t a long-term option for the Giants, Belt has been much more disciplined as a hitter, resulting in some great numbers.

The strikeouts, always a big complaint about Belt, have been cut down. In 104 plate appearances over the season’s first 26 games, Belt has only struck out 16 times, good for a 15.4 percent strikeout rate. Sure, he’s not Denard Span yet, who has struck out eight times in 111 plate appearances for a 7.2 percent K-rate, the sixth-lowest in baseball. But considering Belt’s career strikeout rate of 24.4 percent entering the season, that’s a huge drop.

As the strikeouts have taken a tumble, the walks have risen. Belt has worked 19 walks so far for the Giants, leading the team and matching the Chicago Cub’s Anthony Rizzo for third-highest total in the league. His 18.3 percent walk rate is almost seven percent higher than his 2011 total of 11.4 percent, his previous career-best. That has all combined to translate into a team-leading .413 on-base percentage, the 12th-best mark in the National League.

At the same point last season, Belt had struck out 27 times and walked 11 times in 104 plate appearances. Those numbers were good for a 26 percent K-rate, and 10.6 percent walk-rate.

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Belt’s more refined plate approach can be thanked for the extreme turnaround in his numbers. His eye at the plate has been noticeably more sharp, and he is swinging at far fewer pitches out of the strike zone. Last year, Belt swung at 28.6 percent of pitches he saw out of the strike zone, the lowest total of his career to that point.

This season, Belt has cut down on his swings on pitches out of the zone. He has offered at just 22.2 percent of pitches that don’t find the plate, over six percent lower than last season’s mark. His keen eye has resulted some really good takes, and Belt has battled back from some pitcher’s counts to put himself in a good position to get a pitch to hit.

Along with laying off more pitches out of the zone, Belt is making more contact. His swing-and-miss rate, the percentage of pitches that Belt sees that he swings through, has taken a big dive early in the year. Belt is swinging-and-missing at 8.7 percent of the pitches he sees, a full four percent lower than his rate last season.

Add all that together, and Belt has gotten some great results early in the season. He’s not chasing pitches, he’s not swinging and missing, and he is fitting in perfectly with the Giants’ philosophy of making opposing pitchers work. Belt is seeing 3.86 pitches per plate appearance, making him one of six Giants in the top-40 of that category in the National League.

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With the Giants going to Cincinnati for a three-game set with the Reds, Belt must be happy to be returning to that city. In the final three games of a four-game swing last year, Belt collected nine hits, including a pair of doubles and his first three home runs of the season. In a hitter’s haven like the Great American Ball Park, Belt can put his new, refined approach to good use.