Mathieu Vallée, OF, Mahoning Valley

Mathieu Vallée is your typical leadoff hitter. He’s excelling in that role with Mahoning Valley this season, batting .292 and ranking among the Draft League leaders with 18 walks (tied-second) and 14 hits (tied-sixth). He is walking at a 28.6-percent clip and seeing 4.4 pitchers per plate appearance, with a low chase rate at 11.5 percent. He grinds out at-bats, making pitchers work hard while consistently getting into deep counts (has been in a 2-2 or 3-2 count 46 times).

Is there more? Yes. Looking through his data, Vallée, a Dallas Baptist commit, has an average exit velocity of 75.2 mph with a max exit velocity of 99.2 mph and an average launch angle of 17.6 degrees. 

What does this tell us? Launch angle can help to identify guys with little power who hit the ball softly (between 10 and 20 degrees), but possess a unique ability to get the barrel on the ball. Vallée, a left-handed hitter, does exactly that, and he has the plus speed needed to put pressure on the defense and take extra bases.

Below-average power hitters like Vallée have to optimize their LA between 10-15 degrees to hit the baseball into the gap (lower line-drive production is associated with medium to soft contact). So while Vallée’s average EV and LA don’t result in a lot of hard contact, per se, he has optimized his LA to hit line drives to get on base and use his speed to cause havoc on the bases.