The numbers behind Adell's early success

This story was excerpted from Rhett Bollinger’s Angels Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ANAHEIM -- After years of hype but not finding the results in the Majors, Angels outfielder Jo Adell is starting to show signs that he’s figuring it out at the plate this season.

Adell has been off to an impressive start, batting .290/.338/.565 with four homers, three doubles, a triple and 11 RBIs in 24 games. The 25-year-old earned a move up in the order to the No. 2 spot on Monday and responded with a homer in his first at-bat and had a hard-hit double on Tuesday before having a rough day on Wednesday, going 0-for-5.

But he’s otherwise been a steady presence for the Angels, who need all the help they can get offensively from the former top prospect, especially with Mike Trout out after suffering a torn meniscus in his left knee on Monday that will require surgery.

“It’s all about my approach and what I’m looking for in my at-bats,” Adell said. “I’ve continued to stay the course with that. I’ve focused on my zone and getting pitches to hit. I’ve tried not to do much.”

Perhaps the most encouraging sign for Adell is his improvement in his contact rate and how much he’s dramatically cut down on his strikeout rate. He struck out in 40.3 percent of his plate appearances last year, but it’s down to 26.5 percent this year. It’s helped him up his contact rate from 65.4 percent to 72.4 percent this season.

And when Adell makes contact, he’s among the best in the league at squaring up the ball and hitting it hard. He’s 18th in the Majors in barrels per plate appearance and he’s also 21st in hard-hit percentage, which is the percent of batted balls that are hit harder than 95 mph.

Adell has also started to use the whole field more this year and is getting better at hitting the ball into the air when he makes hard contact as well. He's nearly tripled his line drive rate from last year's 12.1 percent to 35.6 percent, while cutting down on his groundball rate of 48.5 percent to 35.6 percent. His pull percentage of 35.6 percent is also down from his career average of 44.2 percent, while he's hit two of his homers to the opposite field.

“He’s learning the strike zone better and also understanding that he doesn’t always have to go up there and try to hit the ball out of the ballpark,” manager Ron Washington said. “He's been getting doubles. He's been getting singles. And he’s using the whole field and to do that, you have to be patient and wait back in the strike zone. He’s doing a great job of that and that’s why you see a difference.”

Adell, though, remains a work in progress in becoming a complete player, as he has plenty of speed but is still learning to utilize it. Adell is tied for the Angels lead with Trout with an average sprint speed of 28.9 feet per second and has five stolen bases, but he’s also been caught stealing five times and has had an inconsistent year defensively.

Adell has worked hard to improve his defense and looks more comfortable out there than he did early in his career but still had a rough weekend defensively against the Twins. He miscommunicated with Trout on a catchable ball in the right-center field gap that ended up hitting off Adell on Friday and also misplayed a sinking liner on Sunday and was charged with an error.

“I was a little shaky [over the weekend] where I wasn’t as aggressive on some plays,” Adell said. “I should have done a better job being more aggressive on some plays in front of me. Going back, I’ve done a better job. But again, just my aggression, playing through the baseball is going to stop runners and really help us do our thing. So I'm going to continue to work on that. Make sure that it’s something I bring to the game.”

Adell has been working with first-base coach Bo Porter and third-base coach Eric Young Sr. on his baserunning, which also remains a work in progress. He’s been more aggressive than in recent years but it’s led to him running into several outs. Washington joked Adell sometimes thinks he’s “invisible” but believes he’s learning.

“Time will take care of that,” Washington said. “He’s a fiery kid and he gets out there and gets excited,” Washington said. “I think the more he realizes that he will be on the bag a lot, I think he will control that.”