Angels' young superstar continues to crush MLB's best starting pitchers

The Angels actually hold up relatively well when facing the best teams in baseball, and Zach Neto is the physical embodiment of that. The Angels' leadoff hitter sets the tone for the lineup each and every game -- he does that with his aggressive approach at the plate and with his elite production. When facing the best teams and their No. 1 starters, Neto steps his already stellar game up to another level.

Angels' young superstar continues to crush MLB's best starting pitchers

Of the 20 qualified starting pitchers with the best ERAs in baseball, Neto has plate appearances against eight of them -- Detroit's Tarik Skubal, Boston's Garrett Crochet, Houston's Hunter Brown, Minnesota's Joe Ryan, LAD's Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Texas' Jacob deGrom, Seattle's Bryan Woo and Cleveland's Gavin Williams (that's sorted by ERA).

Neto has 30 plate appearances against those eight starters, in total he has four singles, three doubles, one walk and hit by pitch and three home runs. He is posting a .357/.400/.786/1.186 slash line and a .495 wOBA against them, and the pitchers are posting a 6.00 ERA, 8.00 FIP and a 1.83 WHIP. Not bad, eh?

Neto has two home runs off Skubal, plus the shortstop incited a benches-clearing skirmish by getting into it with the Tigers' ace, and now one against Yamamoto. Neto is the only player with more than one home run against Skubal this season. Not only does Neto have homers against those two, he has impressive long balls against San Diego's Michael King and Dylan Cease, plus Houston's star closer Josh Hader.

Neto has two mantras at the plate this season -- he is the best hitter in baseball when leading off games, and crushes great pitchers. Two of his three home runs off Skubal and Yamamoto were on the first pitch of the game. Of the 21 players with 60 or more plate appearances to lead off games, Neto's .641 SLG and 1.001 OPS are the second best marks in the sport to Shohei Ohtani.

Mike Trout and Nolan Schanuel both receive votes as the Angels' best hitters, but Neto is unequivocally the one that shows up the most. What he has done for the Angels against the best pitchers on the best teams is nothing short of remarkable. He is still just 24-years-old, plays fantastic defense and runs the bases better than anybody else on the team. Neto is an all-around star, and will keep on getting better. Pitchers beware.

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