UCLA Dominates D1Baseball's Analytics Rankings
March 23, 2020 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA baseball team had 14 student-athletes recognized in D1 Baseball's analytical rankings for the 2020 season, which were unveiled beginning last week and ending on Monday.
The Bruins had a pair of players ranked No. 1 and had seven ranked inside the top-10 of the lists – which were broken down into class and position player/pitchers. UCLA had at least one player on all eight of the lists.
According to D1Baseball's rankings, UCLA had the No. 1 sophomore pitcher in the country in Jesse Bergin and the top junior hurler in Zach Pettway. Right-hander Jared Karros was the No. 2-ranked freshman pitcher, giving the Bruins a top-two pitcher in each class from freshman to junior.
Matt McLain (No. 3 sophomore hitter) and Kyle Cuellar (No. 4 senior hitter) were the highest-ranked Bruins on the position player side.
The rankings were based on separate criteria for hitters and pitchers.
Hitters were graded on three categories – plate discipline, hit ability, and game power – which were then combined to calculate an Analytics Score. Plate discipline is a measure of how well a batter controls the strike zone. Hit ability simply measures a batter's ability to flat-out hit and reach base while game power is straightforward: did the player produce extra base hits, getting to the power he may show in batting practice.
Pitchers were graded on zone control, pitchability, and durability. Zone Control is how well the pitcher controls the strike zone with strikeouts, walks, wild pitches and hit by pitch. Pitchability refers to the pitcher's ability to pitch and uses statistics like WHIP, FIP and OppSLG. Durability is largely based on innings pitched and batters faced.
Stay tuned to @UCLABaseball on Twitter for all offseason updates.
UCLA Baseball in D1Baseball Analytical Rankings
| Player | Rank | Class | Hitter/Pitcher |
| Jesse Bergin | 1 | Sophomore | Pitcher |
| Zach Pettway | 1 | Junior | Pitcher |
| Jared Karros | 2 | Freshman | Pitcher |
| Matt McLain | 3 | Sophomore | Hitter |
| Kyle Cuellar | 4 | Senior | Hitter |
| Mikey Perez | 10 | Sophomore | Hitter |
| Holden Powell | 10 | Junior | Pitcher |
| Kyle Mora | 12 | Senior | Pitcher |
| Garrett Mitchell | 16 | Junior | Hitter |
| Michael Townsend | 17 | Junior | Pitcher |
| Michael Curialle | 20 | Freshman | Hitter |
| Nick Nastrini | 24 | Sophomore | Pitcher |
| JT Schwartz | 37 | Freshman | Hitter |
| Pat Caulfield | 42 | Junior | Hitter |
