The cool thing about baseball is there's a stat for everything. You name it, there's a statistic associated with it. It's actually becoming overwhelming.
But there's an interesting stat, according to MLB.com, for Giants pitcher Dereck Rodriguez that will get Giants fans super excited for his return in 2018: A 3.9 percent barrel rate.
A what?
A barrel rate.
Picture this: What does a hitter hope to do during his at-bat? Hit the ball, of course, but he also wants to hit it a particular way to ensure he doesn't get an easy out, ie.