25 Most Improved MLB Batters and Pitchers

You can click here for a list of all MLB batters and pitchers this year with stats. If they are GREEN you adjust in their favor (in Statis-Pro adjust PB down one for improved batter, and up one for improved pitcher). If they are RED on that sheet then they have not played as well as projected (in Statis-Pro do the reverse, lower PB by 1 for pitchers and for a struggling batter increase the PB against him).

We ran a check for the projected OPS and ERA figures used to create our Statis-Pro Baseball cards before the season against the actual current OPS and ERA. The following are the players who have most exceeded the projections.

Obviously ERA and OPS are not perfect figures, but they are the figures that all baseball fans can grasp and are pretty accurate. ERA was always a good main stat though FIPs is better, and obviously replacing Batting Average as the standard for most of baseball history with OPS was a major breakthrough.

For the batters we kept it simple by limiting it to players with 100 plate appearances. For pitchers, we considered anyone with either 50 innings pitched or 24 appearances to get both starters and relievers.

For game players, you can look at the updated cards for all Statis-Pro batters or Statis-Pro pitchers in those two links, but for the rest of you this might just give some hints as to why some teams are surprises (note three of the four most improved batters play for the Tampa Bay Rays, while a couple of Minnesota Twins starters are among the six most improved pitchers.

Click for the free Statis-Pro Master Baseball Game. Click here for 60 of the all-time great MLB teams, or on teams of many of the all-time great players on teams by nation or state with one sheet for each team. Or click on the 2023 pitchers and 2023 batters in card form. You simply print two teams cards and then either print theaster link above and fast action cards in master link or buy the dice to start playing.

Rnk	Most improved OPS	Team	Current	Projected	Above Expectation
1	Geraldo Perdomo (Bat: S)	ARI	0.928	0.616	0.312
2	Josh Lowe (Bat: L)	TBR	0.971	0.682	0.289
3	Yandy Díaz	TBR	1.070	0.782	0.288
4	Jose Siri	TBR	0.905	0.661	0.244
5	Jake Burger	CHW	0.916	0.676	0.240
6	Paul DeJong	STL	0.922	0.686	0.236
7	Nolan Gorman (Bat: L)	STL	0.981	0.754	0.227
8	Owen Miller	MIL	0.864	0.641	0.223
9	Kevin Kiermaier (Bat: L)	TOR	0.877	0.660	0.217
10	Brandon Marsh (Bat: L)	PHI	0.842	0.645	0.197
11	Taylor Walls (Bat: S)	TBR	0.839	0.642	0.197
12	Orlando Arcia	ATL	0.885	0.690	0.195
13	Brent Rooker	OAK	0.893	0.701	0.192
14	Luke Raley (Bat: L)	TBR	0.890	0.698	0.192
15	Elias Díaz	COL	0.903	0.722	0.181
16	Randy Arozarena	TBR	0.947	0.784	0.163
17	Ezequiel Duran	TEX	0.855	0.699	0.156
18	Lourdes Gurriel Jr.	ARI	0.930	0.775	0.155
19	Jarred Kelenic (Bat: L)	SEA	0.854	0.709	0.145
20	Joey Gallo (Bat: L)	MIN	0.900	0.756	0.144
21	Ryan Noda (Bat: L)	OAK	0.813	0.669	0.144
22	Will Smith	LAD	0.978	0.836	0.142
23	Sean Murphy	ATL	0.935	0.796	0.139
24	Leody Taveras (Bat: S)	TEX	0.809	0.670	0.139
25	Harold Ramírez	TBR	0.836	0.699	0.137

And here are the pitchers. Pitchers either needed at least 50 innings pitched, or at least 24 games pitched to date to be considered.

Rnk	Most improved ERA	Tm	G	IP	ERA Now	Proj ERA	Lowered
1	Tim Mayza (LHP)	TOR	24	18.2	0.96	3.55	-2.59
2	Jake Bird	COL	24	33.2	2.41	4.70	-2.29
3	Josiah Gray	WSN	10	57.2	2.65	4.87	-2.22
4	Bryce Elder	ATL	10	58.1	2.01	4.22	-2.21
5	Sonny Gray	MIN	10	54.1	1.82	4.00	-2.18
6	Joe Ryan	MIN	10	61	2.21	4.18	-1.97
7	Trevor Gott	SEA	24	22.2	1.99	3.91	-1.92
8	Eduardo Rodriguez (LHP)	DET	10	61.2	2.19	3.96	-1.77
9	Félix Bautista	BAL	24	25	1.44	3.14	-1.70
10	Kyle Freeland (LHP)	COL	11	58.1	3.86	5.44	-1.58
11	Miguel Castro	ARI	24	22.1	2.42	3.93	-1.51
12	Mitch Keller	PIT	11	68.2	3.01	4.38	-1.37
13	Drew Smyly (LHP)	CHC	10	55.1	2.93	4.28	-1.35
14	Nathan Eovaldi	TEX	10	69.1	2.60	3.93	-1.33
15	Merrill Kelly	ARI	10	57.1	2.98	4.28	-1.30
16	Alex Cobb	SFG	10	58	2.17	3.46	-1.29
17	Jon Gray	TEX	10	57.2	2.81	3.94	-1.13
18	Justin Steele (LHP)	CHC	11	65	2.77	3.85	-1.08
19	Chris Bassitt	TOR	10	62.1	3.03	4.09	-1.06
20	Marcus Stroman	CHC	11	64	2.95	4.00	-1.05
21	Wandy Peralta (LHP)	NYY	24	20.2	2.61	3.64	-1.03
22	Shane McClanahan (LHP)	TBR	11	64	1.97	3.00	-1.03
23	Dustin May	LAD	9	48	2.63	3.65	-1.02
24	Anthony DeSclafani	SFG	10	60.1	3.43	4.39	-0.96
25	Cristian Javier	HOU	10	58.2	3.07	3.99	-0.92

Click for the free Statis-Pro Master Baseball Game. Click here for 60 of the all-time great MLB teams, or on teams of many of the all-time great players on teams by nation or state with one sheet for each team. Or click on the 2023 pitchers and 2023 batters in card form. You simply print two teams cards and then either print theaster link above and fast action cards in master link or buy the dice to start playing.