A lot of us know that after an incredible April-May 2012 Josh really tailed off last year. It's gotten no better this year.
In fact, Josh is now leading the league as the worst player in baseball when it comes to plate discipline:
Some will say these are "baseball nerd" stats but they aren't hard to understand. His O-swing % (percentage of pitches he swings at out of the strike zone) is over 40% and worst in the league. Translation: throw Josh something out of the strike zone and the chances are almost 50-50 he'll take a swing at it.
So why would anyone throw Josh a strike? Pitchers have clearly figured him out and his plate performance is just falling falling falling.
He's the biggest hack in baseball - super aggressive at the plate, always swings at the first strike, but no one is giving him anything to hit so ... he's striking out a ton.
If you're a fan of JH it's easy to say "just keep at it, Josh, you'll break out of this slump." um, it's not a slump it's a season's worth of data now and whether you think these stats are just for nerds or not opposing pitchers clearly know how to pitch him.
The Fangraphs article says "This isn’t a situation where Hamilton just needs to wait for inevitable regression to the mean to come iron out his bad luck. Josh Hamilton needs to take charge of the rest of his career and make significant changes to his approach at the plate. "
The more I watch this train wreck in progress the more I am thinking the Rangers really dodged a bullet here.
In fact, Josh is now leading the league as the worst player in baseball when it comes to plate discipline:
Some will say these are "baseball nerd" stats but they aren't hard to understand. His O-swing % (percentage of pitches he swings at out of the strike zone) is over 40% and worst in the league. Translation: throw Josh something out of the strike zone and the chances are almost 50-50 he'll take a swing at it.
So why would anyone throw Josh a strike? Pitchers have clearly figured him out and his plate performance is just falling falling falling.
He's the biggest hack in baseball - super aggressive at the plate, always swings at the first strike, but no one is giving him anything to hit so ... he's striking out a ton.
If you're a fan of JH it's easy to say "just keep at it, Josh, you'll break out of this slump." um, it's not a slump it's a season's worth of data now and whether you think these stats are just for nerds or not opposing pitchers clearly know how to pitch him.
The Fangraphs article says "This isn’t a situation where Hamilton just needs to wait for inevitable regression to the mean to come iron out his bad luck. Josh Hamilton needs to take charge of the rest of his career and make significant changes to his approach at the plate. "
The more I watch this train wreck in progress the more I am thinking the Rangers really dodged a bullet here.
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