The bizarre brilliance of Derek Dietrich’s 2019 season

To date, Dietrich has been hit by an astonishing 25 pitches, the second most in all baseball. He’s also the owner of 28 walks on the season, as well as a career-best 19 dingers. None of those, in a vacuum, jump off the page in any sort of way, really, aside from the HBP numbers that were largely fueled by a fit of Clint Hurdle rage months back.

What’s astonishing in context, however, is that he only has 18 singles this entire season. Right now, with the season nearing its completion, Dietrich has more HBP, walks, and homers than he has singles. That’s simply unheard of.