
Haaland: I feel no pressure facing Arsenal - we have nothing to lose
Haaland claims no pressure facing Arsenal as City aims for title.
Jacob Melton, acquired by the Tampa Bay Rays, is struggling in Triple-A with a 74 wRC+ despite a strong power profile. His recent adjustments may lead to improved performance as he refines his approach.
In order to get the most out of his profile as a power hitter, Melton needs to ensure heās consistently hitting the ball at optimal angles. He has seen year-over-year improvement in his SLG on contact (SLGcon), measured per āBBEā (Batted Ball Event, e.g. anytime a bat makes contact with the ball).
Melton's struggles may be due to random variance and adjustments in his approach, which are affecting his early performance.
Melton has a 74 wRC+ and a whiff rate of 41.4%, indicating significant swing-and-miss issues as he adjusts his hitting approach.
Melton's average hard-hit launch angle has increased from 9 degrees in 2024 to 19 degrees in 2026, suggesting improved contact quality.
Melton needs to improve his swing decisions and reduce his whiff rate, particularly with two strikes, to enhance his chances of making the major league roster.

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Melton is whiffing significantly more this season as a result of his shift in approach. In many ways, this looks like a deliberate trade-off: sacrificing contact to unlock more impactful contact. After maintaining a solid 23.4 whiff% across 2024 and 2025 in AAA, it has significantly increased to 41.4% this season. That level of swing-and-miss would be difficult to sustain at the major league level. Melton can hedge against this by improving his swing decisions and figuring out a two-strike approach. The two data points Iāll be following are his zone-minus-out-of-zone (Z-O) swing% with less than two strikes and his whiff% with two strikes. Heāll need to be selective and disciplined to maintain his plus damage on contact. His Z-O swing% so far this year is a 38.9%. This number is currently better than average but getting it closer to 40% and higher would be ideal for Meltonās profile. It appears that heās doing well in this area so far. His two-strike approach is less polished as Melton is currently whiffing on 53.7% of pitches with two strikes. One possible adjustment is incorporating more opposite-field intent in two-strike counts. That would allow him to see the ball deeper and naturally shorten his swing, which could help reduce swing-and-miss. Importantly, this kind of situational adjustment wouldnāt necessarily come at the expense of his improved damage on contact. Those two markers ā early-count swing decisions and two-strike whiff rate ā will be key to monitor as he works toward impacting the major league roster later this season and pushing for a role in 2027.