NEWS/RUMORS/AROUND MLB Thread

espn article on slumping hitters
we're so good we have two...

Yasmani Grandal and Adrian Gonzalez, Los Angeles Dodgers

Numbers: Grandal is hitting .192/.310/.359 and Gonzalez is hitting .267/.344/.380

Biggest problem: Health? At this time last year, Grandal was hitting .276/.386/.494 and Gonzalez .297/.372/.523. They had combined for 22 home runs, and the Dodgers were fourth in the NL in runs. This year, they've combined for 12 home runs, and the Dodgers are ninth in the NL in runs. Grandal hurt his shoulder in the second half and had offseason surgery; Gonzalez's decline, meanwhile, can be traced back to the final two months of 2015, when he hit .238/.316/.371. Two issues explain Gonzalez's power drought: He's pulling the ball less often and he's hitting too many grounders. His pull percentage is 35.7 percent, down from 40 percent last year and 45.5 percent in 2013. His ground-ball rate, which has hovered between 38 and 39 percent the past three seasons, has increased to 53.3 percent. Uh oh.

David Schoenfield ✓ @dschoenfield
Adrian Gonzalez's groundball rate has been 38-39 percent the past three seasons;
it's over 50 percent in 2016.
7:26 AM - 23 Jun 2016 ​

Diagnosis: Grandal told ESPN.com's Doug Padilla the other day that he feels his swing is coming around. "I've been hitting the ball pretty hard the past couple of weeks," Grandal said. "I feel like this whole month I have been hitting the ball well, I just haven't been getting it in the air. This game is about inches or angles. When I look up and I hit a ball hard over 100 mph, for me that's what I'm trying to do. So far, I feel like I have been doing a pretty [good] job of that and I look forward to keep doing that. Obviously, hits will start to fall at some point." With Grandal, it may simply be a matter of the shoulder getting stronger. If the Dodgers believe the issues are more serious, they may set their sights on Jonathan Lucroy.

Gonzalez's issues are simple: He has to start lofting the ball. He's had his own health issues and had an epidural in late May for a pinched nerve in his lower back. That could certainly explain his struggles, but he's hitting .189 in June with one home run. He's getting worse, not better. Keep in mind, he's 34 years old and funny things can happen when you're 34. There are a lot of red flags here.​

 

So, Frankie Montas has a broken rib and is going to be out for 2 more months... He was actually scheduled to make his Dodgers debut today and pitch but instead he has a broken rib. Brutal

 

Gah...can't imagine the amount of pain he is feeling right now. Had a broken rib as a kid and thought I was dying.

 

same, but i was in college
was worse when i tore rib cage muscles
hurt to cough, sneeze, breathe, move
only saving grace is it seems to heal, check that, become tolerable relatively quickly

 

Naw, not even worth to go into the modern stuff. The pre modern stuff is good enough.
RISP is about a good a stat as there is.
It tells you how well a guy hits (AVG, how well he drives in runs (RBI) and how important he is to the team winning (overall value).
Its a very a telling stat that is better than win shares or other value stats. Its also easy to understand.
OBP is great because it tells you a very important thing about a player, can he get on base?
Getting on base is important because when you combine it with others RISP it means more runs scored and therefore more wins.
If a player is batting .230 and he gets on base at .330 thats a .100 point differential. Thats elite status right there.
If a player hits .230 he sucks, but if he OBP .330 and RISP .280 then he does not suck at all but is a really good player to have.
Some players have great stats but they are just inflated numbers that are meaningless.
RISP is a big tell in how much value a players stats really have.
A guy that bats 4th and has 100 RBI but low RISP has an over inflated RBI number due to his position in the lineup and the players around him. But if his RISP is good it means that he earned those 100 RBI.
These stats are very situational and they help you see the value in players that might not have the raw numbers.
But there is something to be said about consistent players like Adrian who may not have wow numbers but provided a lot of value either way.
Thats why the best markers for value are your eyes and your experience as a baseball analyst/fan.

 

What?
Racist!
Just because im mexican im supposed to know why these Cubanos have weird ass names.
lol.
Its probably cuban ebonics.
Like De'Andre, and De'Angelo, and De'Quan, etc...
Wait, that comes from spanish. De Toledo like Scratch.