Kevin McGonigle's ascension with Tigers is epitomized by this beyond his years stat

"Kevin McGonigle looks like he's done this before" has been one of baseball media's favorite thing to say about the Tigers rookie. It's been said and written so much that despite McGonigle's inexperience it's already becoming something of a cliché — but that doesn't make it any less true. In fact, it still perfectly encapsulates why everything he's done has been so impressive.

He's only 21. He skipped Triple-A entirely. And yet, from his first major league at-bat, he was handling pitching like a veteran. He was Detroit's first rookie All-Star since Mark Fidrych in 1976. It's his plate discipline especially that makes him look so wise beyond his years. Less than 100 games into his major league career, the youngest guy on the Tigers' roster is also the one we can most depend on for a quality at-bat.

Twitter user Tigers Data summed it up succinctly with one stat. McGonigle and Javy Báez are among 359 hitters who have seen 100+ waste pitches over the past two seasons. McGonigle has only swung at 0.6% of them, making him the best decision-maker among those 359 hitters. Báez has a 26.2% swing rate, making him the worst.

This stunning Javy Báez/Kevin McGonigle contrast perfectly sums up Tigers rookie's success

Swinging at everything has long been a part of Báez's game, but it was far more forgivable when he was younger and actually managing to hit the ball at a decent clip. The fact that he's 33 and should be a more mature hitter whose plate approach has evolved makes McGonigle's patience and restraint all the more impressive.

McGonigle is still walking more than he's striking out — 60 to 56 by the All-Star break. He's still projected to finish the year with more walks than strikeouts, even if it's by a slim margin. Toward the beginning of the season, Jayson Stark wrote that doing so would bode well not just for McGonigle's immediate prospects (a Rookie of the Year award, perhaps), but for his future as a Hall of Famer.

Tigers fans love this kid for the consistency and the grind. He might not have the flashiest power, but he'll do his best to give the pitcher a headache every time he's at the plate. He doesn't fall for bad pitches out of the zone; he really doesn't fall for good ones out of the zone either.

He's going to be the Tigers' perfect lead-off hitter for a long time, and he really might just keep getting better.

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