Tag Archives: Josh Jung

May 14, 2025

Beat the Streak Picks

Leave a reply

For the past few years Baseball Musings tried to help with playing Beat the Streak. The Day by Day Database keeps track of hit streak of at least five games. In addition, two programs produce top ten lists of players with a high probability of a hit.

Here are the top picks my programs produced for use in Beat the Streak. This post mostly explains the ideas behind the calculations. In addition, this post shows tests on the Neural Network (NN). This post discusses an NN that includes the ballpark. I updated the models, and the results of those tests are here.

The Log5 Method yields these top projected hit averages against starting pitchers:

It looks like another good night for the Rangers against the Rockies. Jung hit two home runs Tuesday night. Corey Seager is now on the illjured list, otherwise he would be at the top.

The NN produces this list of batters with a high probability of collecting at least one hit:

The Rangers impress the NN less. Jung and Smith are the consensus top picks, but Merrill and Arraez is a perfectly good double down pair.

You can follow the NN results on this spreadsheet. I do not guarantee results. Your best pick is going to have about a 25% chance of not getting a hit. Good luck!

May 13, 2025

Beat the Streak Picks

1 Reply

For the past few years Baseball Musings tried to help with playing Beat the Streak. The Day by Day Database keeps track of hit streak of at least five games. In addition, two programs produce top ten lists of players with a high probability of a hit.

Here are the top picks my programs produced for use in Beat the Streak. This post mostly explains the ideas behind the calculations. In addition, this post shows tests on the Neural Network (NN). This post discusses an NN that includes the ballpark. I updated the models, and the results of those tests are here.

The Log5 Method yields these top projected hit averages against starting pitchers:

Seager is often a high pick in these analyses, and he’s off the charts against Freeland. On top of that, in twenty four PA against Freeland, Seager collected fourteen hits, one walk, and just three strikeouts.

The NN produced this list of batters with a high probability of collecting at least one hit:

  • 0.309, 0.734 — Jackson Merrill batting against Jose Soriano.
  • 0.347, 0.732 — Corey Seager batting against Kyle Freeland.
  • 0.292, 0.721 — Luis Arraez batting against Jose Soriano.
  • 0.332, 0.711 — Josh Jung batting against Kyle Freeland.
  • 0.278, 0.709 — Aaron Judge batting against Bryan Woo.
  • 0.286, 0.702 — Steven Kwan batting against Quinn Priester.
  • 0.263, 0.700 — Bobby Witt Jr. batting against Framber Valdez.
  • 0.329, 0.695 — Josh Smith batting against Kyle Freeland.
  • 0.272, 0.694 — Freddie Freeman batting against Jeffrey Springs.
  • 0.288, 0.691 — Manny Machado batting against Jose Soriano.

Merrill supplants Arraez as the top pick by the NN. Merrill owns a relatively low K rate for a slugger, 15.4% this season. With a .511 BABIP in 2025, he’s hitting .467. Missing time with an injury held him to just 65, PA, however.

Seager is the consensus top pick with Jung and Merrill tied for the double down choice.

You can follow the NN results on this spreadsheet. I do not guarantee results. Your best pick is going to have about a 25% chance of not getting a hit. Good luck!

November 1, 2023

Rangers Keep Hitting

Leave a reply

Josh Jung and Nathaniel Lowe of the Rangers both single opening the top of the ninth inning against Diamondbacks pitcher Paul Sewald. Jonah Heim comes up and knocks a single to centerfield, and the ball goes under the glove of Alek Thomas. The two runners score and Heim winds up at third. The Rangers now lead 3-0, needing three outs on defense to win the World Series.

Update: With two out, Marcus Semien homers to give Texas a 5-0 lead. That’s his second home run in the series in as many games.

Update: Evan Carter strikes out to end the inning. Now it’s up to the defense.

October 31, 2023

Jung Run

Leave a reply

Josh Jung of the Rangers leads off the top of the second inning with a double. He makes it to third with two out, and a Miguel Castro wild pitch bring Jung home with the first run of the game. Castro, facing his second batter in relief, then walks Leody Taveras and gives up a seeing eye base hit to Travis Jankowski, in for the injured Adolis Garcia. The Rangers have the lead and a threat.

Update: Marcus Semien tripled in the two runners and the Rangers lead the Diamondbacks 3-0. That’s the ninth triple of the post-season, the most since 2017, when there were 12.

Update: Kyle Nelson comes in to face Corey Seager, and Seager homers for a 5-0 Rangers lead. That’s his sixth home run of the post-season and third of the World Series.

Update: The Rangers hit for the cycle in the inning.

October 19, 2023

Best Batter Today

Leave a reply

Yordan Alvarez of the Astros remains at the top of the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings after a two for four with a hit by pitch in the 8-5 win over the Rangers in game three of the ALCS. I hope you caught the interview with him post-game, where Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz took turns asking questions in Spanish and translating the answers.

The rest of the top five were idle and the order did not change.

Josh Jung of the Rangers posted the best game score of the day, a 72. He went two for four with two home runs and drove in four of the five Texas runs. He now ranks 167.

October 18, 2023 October 18, 2023 October 5, 2023

Best Batter Today

Leave a reply

Wednesday produced no changes to the top five of the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings as none of the highest ranked hitters played. The order remains Juan Soto, Yordan Alvarez, Aaron Judge, Ronald Acuna Jr. and Marcell Ozuna.

The best game score of the day went to Josh Jung of the Rangers, three for four with two doubles and a triple in the 7-1 win against the Rays. That was good for a 71. Including the two Wild Card series wins, the Rangers are now 75-49 when Jung plays, a .604 winning percentage.

October 4, 2023

Shocked

Leave a reply

I am shocked, shocked I say to get out of work and see the Rangers up 7-1 on the Rays. Every member of the Rangers lineup owns at least one hit. The eight-nine hitters, Josh Jung and Evan Cater, are a combined four for six with a walk, a hit by pitch, two doubles and a triple. Nathan Eovaldi pitched 6 2/3 innings, walking none and striking out eight. The Rays, who were middle of the pack in walks in 2023, have drawn one walk in the two games.

It looks like they are going to get swept at home, and as an added indignity, they drew very small crowds, around 20,000 fans each game.

September 20, 2023 September 7, 2023

Garcia Sidelined

Leave a reply

The injury Adolis Garcia suffered Wednesday night forces him onto the illjured list:

The Texas Rangers are placing All-Star outfielder Adolis Garcia on the 10-day IL with a right patellar tendon strain, it was announced Thursday.

Garcia suffered the injury while giving chase and making a leaping attempt to catch a home run by Houston’s Michael Brantley that just cleared the right-field fence in the second inning of Wednesday’s loss to the Astros. García’s right leg jammed hard to the ground and his knee buckled when he came down at the base of the wall.

ESPN.com

The Rangers already miss Josh Jung. They were 65-44 when he appeared in a game, 11-19 without him. With Garcia leading the AL in RBI, the Rangers lose another big bat for the stretch run.

August 27, 2023

First Mates

Leave a reply

The Mariners beat the Royals 3-2 Sunday afternoon while the Rangers fell to the Twins 7-6, putting the Mariners in sole possession of first place in the AL West:

It’s the latest the Mariners have had sole possession of first in a season since Aug. 24, 2003.

Chron.com

Seattle won eleven of twelve games. They scored at least six runs in nine of those games and allowed three runs or fewer in half of the games. This streak is really an offensive surge, so it’s nice to see that they can win close, low scoring games as well.

The Rangers, on the other hand, lost nine of ten games. The score three runs or fewer in six of those games. They allowed six runs or more in six of those games. The Josh Jung injury is proving to be a big loss. The team is 65-44 when he plays, 8-13 when he doesn’t.

August 6, 2023

Jung Thumb

Leave a reply

The Rangers beat the Marlins 6-0 but lost their star rookie Josh Jung to a fractured left thumb:

Jung fractured the thumb on a bizarre play in the top of the sixth inning with runners on first and second and nobody out. Jorge Soler hit a scorching, 110-mph liner directly at Jung near the base. The ball bounded out of Jung’s glove, but he grabbed it and started a double play. He tagged the bag and threw to Marcus Semien at second. Jung then left the game.

MSN.com

Jung went 0 for 2 in the game, leaving him with a .274/.323/.489 slash line for the season. The Rangers are waiting on a specialist to determine how much time Jung will miss. It’s possible he’d done for the season. Shortstop Corey Seager also suffered from a thumb injury this season.

June 9, 2023

Just Homers

Leave a reply

The Rays held the Rangers to just three hits, but all three were home runs as Leody Taveras goes deep twice and Josh Jung once. That accounted for all three runs, which was nowhere near enough as Tampa Bay takes the game 8-3. Isaac Paredes matched the Rangers hit total with two home runs and a double, driving in six of the home team’s runs.

This was a pretty good matchup, but only 17,447 fans showed up.

May 3, 2023

Jung at Heart

Leave a reply

Josh Jung of the Rangers hit two home runs Wednesday afternoon, his second two home run game in as many weeks. With another two-homer game in September of 2022, Jung has three multi-home run games in his 54 MLB appearances, or in 5.5% of his games played. Compare that to Babe Ruth, who holds the record for multi-HR games with 72. Ruth did that in 2503 games, or 2.8% of his games. Jung is off to a great start to his career in this regard.

Unfortunately for the Rangers, that was not enough as the Diamondbacks win 12-7. Christian Walker hit two home runs for Arizona in the game, and the two teams drove a total of eight balls out of the yard.