He looks pretty hitterish': SF Giants' Eldridge showing promising signs despite being hitless

"Bryce Eldridge, less than a week into his major-league career, remains in search of his first hit. That milestone, among others, should come in due time. While still batting .000, Eldridge has shown small glimpses of the promise that made him one of baseball's top prospects. His at-bats have been good, said manager Bob Melvin of the Giants' top prospect. We'd love for him to get his first hit and get that out of the way, but he has not looked overmatched."

"Eldridge has struck out in five of his 10 plate appearances entering Friday, his only time reaching base so far being a walk in Wednesday's win against the Diamondbacks. Of the four times he's put the ball in play, he's generated exit velocities of 105.9 mph, 105.2 mph, 102.4 mph and 99.0 mph. Baseball Savant categories balls in play at least 95 mph or faster as hard hit. Eldridge won't continue to post an average exit velocity of 103.1 mph Oneil Cruz leads the league at 95.7 mph but it's been a peak at Eldridge's elite raw power."

"To look at a much larger sample, Eldridge posted elite batted-ball data with Triple-A Sacramento, being in the 95th percentile or better in barrel rate (95th), average exit velocity (97th) and hard-hit rate (98th) per Prospect Savant. In his third career plate appearance, Eldridge inside-outed a four-seam fastball from the Diamondbacks' Taylor Rashi. At 407 feet, Eldridge's line drive would've been a home run in 23 of 30 ballparks. Unfortunately for Eldridge, he was playing in one of the seven stadiums where it wouldn't clear the fences."

Bryce Eldridge remains hitless in his first week of major-league play, entering Friday with a .000 batting average, five strikeouts in 10 plate appearances and one walk. Of four balls put in play he produced exit velocities of 105.9, 105.2, 102.4 and 99.0 mph, yielding an extremely high small-sample average exit velocity. Triple-A numbers show elite batted-ball metrics, including top-percentile barrel rate, average exit velocity and hard-hit rate. A 407-foot line drive in his third plate appearance would have been a homer in many parks, and a 2-2 pitch against a lefty resulted in a hard out.

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