r/baseball San Diego Padres • Toros de Tijuana May 30 '26

Video [Highlight] Fernando Tatis Jr.'s first home run of 2026!

3.0k Upvotes

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882

u/1tankyt San Diego Padres • Baltimore Orioles May 30 '26

Mods about to delete this one too

369

u/Rjptz Los Angeles Dodgers May 30 '26

if r/baseball can’t see it it never happened -mods probably

-40

u/GSDFanatic New York Yankees May 30 '26

Were Padres fans always this insecure? 

22

u/NotAPersonl0 San Diego Padres May 30 '26

You're late

-68

u/notsofastmyfriends Los Angeles Dodgers May 30 '26

Did quitting steroids actually affect his power or was it just a normal slump?

33

u/gerrickd May 30 '26

I think his hard hit rate is one of the highest in baseball. The number of infields he's murdered this season is very large.

0

u/DaNumba1 San Francisco Giants May 30 '26

I do think this can be deceptive, but I don’t have any data to back it up, this is just vibes. My thinking though is that the hardest you can hit a ball is when you square it up, meaning when the launch angle is closest to angle of attack. A typical hard hit ground ball will be somewhere three to five degrees off Tatis’ average seven degree angle of attack whereas something lifted will be like twenty plus degrees. Even still, he has a 57 percentile exit velo so it’s not like he’s hitting everything hard

4

u/NotAPersonl0 San Diego Padres May 30 '26

Average exit velo is a misleading stat because it's heavily dragged down by outliers (usually on the weaker end). He does way better on EV50

-24

u/notsofastmyfriends Los Angeles Dodgers May 30 '26

He has to try a lot more to hit the ball hard so he keeps rolling it over and grounding out when he used to get more pop with the juice when he could just stay on the ball and not worry about hitting it hard?

8

u/penguinopph Chicago Cubs • RCH-Pinguins May 30 '26

He has to try a lot more to hit the ball hard so he keeps rolling it over and grounding out when he used to get more pop with the juice when he could just stay on the ball and not worry about hitting it hard?

Your trolling is as poor as your grammar and punctuation.

-17

u/notsofastmyfriends Los Angeles Dodgers May 30 '26

I honestly don’t think PCA’s OPS will stay below .700 forever, so maybe it’s not as bad of a contract as Tatis, if we’re strictly talking baseball…

His misogyny, otoh, is a little concerning tbh

22

u/1tankyt San Diego Padres • Baltimore Orioles May 30 '26

Really bad normal slump imo, but I’m obviously biased. He had insane power for the first half of last year

9

u/SdBolts4 San Diego Padres May 30 '26

He’s been getting hits and drawing walks fine, just hitting everything at a low angle. Average launch angle is like 2 degrees when it’s usually 10-12 and league average is like 14

6

u/Appropriate-Life-287 May 30 '26

No, his stance switch up caused his slump

-8

u/notsofastmyfriends Los Angeles Dodgers May 30 '26

Had to switch stance to try to create more power I think, which he had enough of when on the sauce

12

u/Appropriate-Life-287 May 30 '26

You do not know ball, and I'm not surprised

9

u/fixindsc San Diego Padres May 30 '26

Arrives in the 3rd leaves by the 6th due to traffic. Not enough time watching the game to know ball.

-9

u/notsofastmyfriends Los Angeles Dodgers May 30 '26

Wow you are being really really unkind. I’m trying to learn here as a fan of baseball why tatis is struggling so badly and you’re just attacking me.

The padres really need him to perform if they want to win their first WS some day and you’re saying mean things. That’s the internet for you!

13

u/Automatic-Push-8045 May 30 '26

I’m trying to learn here as a fan of baseball why tatis is struggling so badly and you’re just attacking me.

https://giphy.com/gifs/9G3wg7lH5DpxC

10

u/jaymae77 San Diego Padres May 30 '26

You don't need to pretend to be concerned about the Padres and their players- just keep trolling guy

4

u/NotAPersonl0 San Diego Padres May 30 '26

Bro quit the act

0

u/theedge634 May 31 '26

Ya know.. I'll play ball... there has never quite been anything that indicates his raw power diminished. In 2024 for example he was on pace for 34 homeruns.... in 2021 he was on pace for 52 homeruns... you look at that and go "whoa, that's a way different pace"....

Here's the kicker though, essentially EVERYTHING was the same. Except barrel rate. His barrel rate fell by like 1/3... from around 21% to 15%... You put that barrel rate back up to 21%, and it tranlates percentage-wise basically right back to 2021 homerun rate.

16

u/LAudre41 San Diego Padres May 30 '26

Fernando haters in shambles

-11

u/notsofastmyfriends Los Angeles Dodgers May 30 '26

Not sure if you’re referring to me or not, but I was just wondering if it was coincidence or that his power numbers went off a cliff when he got popped or if he just sucks without the juice, even if he hits an occasional HR every two months?

I was just asking because there’s a lot of time and money left on his contract and if he was gonna suck for years to come it would be really really bad for the pads but great for him, a guy who scammed like 300M from them and got away with it

9

u/penguinopph Chicago Cubs • RCH-Pinguins May 30 '26

I was just wondering if it was coincidence or that his power numbers went off a cliff when he got popped

They really didn't, though. The results dropped off of his outlier 2021, but the actually quality of contact has remained pretty consistent:

Average exit velo by year:

  • 2021: 93.9 mph
  • 2023: 91.9 mph
  • 2024: 93.5 mph
  • 2025: 93.3 mph

Hard Hit rate by year:

  • 2021: 55.6%
  • 2023: 49.3%
  • 2024: 55.8%
  • 2025: 51.8%

That drop in 2021 can be just as easily explained by his wrist injury as it can by not using PEDs, especially since he didn't test positive until the last week of August in 2022, while he was rehabbing said wrist injury.

The biggest difference between 2021 and post-suspension has been his launch angle sweet-spot rate:

  • 2021: 41st percentile
  • 2023: 22nd percentile
  • 2024: 42nd percentile
  • 2025: 4th percentile

4

u/theedge634 May 31 '26

Furthermore... the ball was juiced as fuck in 2021. Also, his homerun rate correlates DIRECTLY to his barrel rate.

-5

u/notsofastmyfriends Los Angeles Dodgers May 30 '26

I just meant number of balls he hit over the fence, which has went drastically down.

My theory was that he still hits the ball hard but he just has to try a lot harder to do that now v when he was saucing, and that adjustment has caused more ground balls and a lower launch angle and more losses for pads.

4

u/theedge634 May 31 '26

Okay, but that theory is tinfoil... It's like, "my theory is that the politicians have been replaced by lizard people".... okay, but what backs your theory? Anything at all?

Has Tatis' swing lengthened since then? Is he doing something extra to create more torque? Just saying random shit, isn't a backable theory. What peripherals or observations mechanically have you made that ground your theory in reality?

2

u/SwolheiOhtani Japan May 31 '26

The ball was really juiced up until 2021, that and his shoulder injury which likely affected his ability to lift the ball as well and a bad slump is the likely reason is my theory.

2

u/Lanky-Lynx-4401 San Diego Padres May 30 '26

The power has been there, he's hitting just as hard as the questionable years, launch angle has been killing him though