Hmm....he got 100 AB at age 21. That's it right? I ASSURE you he will he better than Tyler White this time around.
Verlander pitching tonight. Verlander hit one onto the train tracks in BP at MMP before this series, they said last night. Maybe Verlander plans to not leave his win in the hands of the normal batters tonight.
He's not the same hitter though. He's got the HRs, but also a million lazy popflies. He hit 39 2Bs 2 years ago, and 51 last year. He's on pace for 22 (and 20 fewer XBH overall). Hitting .231 with 1 2B with RISP.
He has been basically the same in terms of value this year, his wRC+ is only a few points lower and he is doing this with a ridiculously low BABiP.
Looks like increased walks, slight increase in Ks, and a more risky batted ball profile (homer or bust)n but about the same value. Though, the batted ball profile change may be caused by him getting less pitches to hit.
Granted it seems worse this year, but he's had the pop-fly problem for several years. It's a lingering issue for him. It's kind of the default with his swing when he gets bad contact. He's aware of it, too. I remember him mentioning in a post-game interview this year when he had a pretty good game that he "needs to learn to hit a four-seam fastball." It was the first thing he said as the reporters were trying to heap all this praise on him. Whatever he's changed in his swing, it's too subtle for me to notice. I wonder if he's trying to loft the ball more because of the GIDP problem the team has which kills RISP situations. That's pure speculation by me. He'll figure it out. He's the one guy that's driven enough to figure his batting deficiencies out on his own. I would like to see him take more hacks, though. He walks A LOT, but he doesn't have guys behind him at the moment to make his walks worth anything. I mean, honestly, most guys on the team need to take more hacks. They had 9 walks last night and only 4 hits in a 2-run losing effort. Runners left-on-base: literally one million.
