I don't know why i get the feeling like I'm getting ready to read a "just had surgery" article about Yordan. I hope I'm wrong.
You also never know what the actual age of some players is. Pujols has been heavily rumored to be older than he says ... by MLB executives.
Hard fought wins is a sign of a playoff bound team. Different sport but ... how many College Football bowl games have you seen where one team gets down 21-0 or some such and fight their way back into the game?
Even if he was a couple years older than his listed age, his drop off started when he was supposedly 33. Never hit for an OPS above .800 after that until his final season, which is hard to explain.
I think he roided at the end to get to 700. That’s the only way you can explain it. I think it was figured out that he is 3 years older than was reported throughout his career.
And the musical chairs continues. As far as musical chairs lineups from Espada goes I don't hate that one too much.
Diaz way more upside than Caratini but Caratini goes up there with a plan. Works counts and hits balls in the gap. Plus he’s a much needed lefty bat. Yainer is scuffling pretty badly for the first time in his career. He has had bad luck with some liners right at people but his patience at the plate, while never his strong suit, has seemed to regress even further. 4 walks. I know he’s improved in the last few weeks but I think we still see some of the same issues. Bottom line is that he has too many poor, non competitive at bats. He’s very talented and I expect him to do great things this year. The team really needs him to get hot.
His plate discipline is awful. 26% of all pitches thrown to him are low and outside. Last year it was 25% He swings at 44% of them. Last year 37% He whiffs on 52% of his swings. Last year 50% He K's 47% when the final pitch of a PA is there. Last year it was 37% His quality of contact is down. Hard hit % is down from 85th percentile to 30th. Avg exit velo down from 68th to 46th Pitchers are attacking him similar to always, but he needs to lay off the low-outside pitches. He needs to make better swing decisions to continue being a good MLB hitter.
When Yordan comes back I wonder if they’ll start splitting Diaz’ and Caratini’s time a bit more. He sure is hitting the bell well right now. Also Jake!!!! I just can’t get my hopes up for him. Everytime I do he starts sucking again. All I will say is I love him right now!
