So, any thoughts on what happened with this guy? He went from being a post season hero last year to being pinch hit for by Jonathan Singleton tonight. It's alarming. He's only hit 4 home runs since the first month of the season and none since early July. Dude's power has fallen off of a cliff and even Dusty seems to have lost confidence. WTF is going on with him?
Teams have a book on him now I don't know what else it could be unless he is playing through a wrist injury that is affecting his power.
The guy was more clutch then Alvarez last year. Honestly Dusty probably should drop him for game 7. He is another Maldy in the lineup.
He was also hitting 2nd last post season so he was getting fastballs because he had Alvarez, Bregman, and Tucker hitting behind him too.
He's batting last for a reason, but sending up a guy who hasn't performed in his entire career, and I really mean not performed, and who hasn't been in the pressure cooker before not only led to a poor result, but shakes the confidence right out of a young cornerstone who used to have it. In the end none of it mattered. We got beat soundly. But it did not feel like the right move.
Singleton was the right call last night. He actually gives you a chance to work a walk or luck in to a barrel. If Pena barrels, its not getting out of the park. His power is longggggggggg gone.
The concerning thing is that his evo numbers didn't change from last year. His launch angle did significantly. So he tried to change something this offseason with the Astros hitting coaches or someone and its all jacked up. His K rate and BB did go the right direction..... Jeremy has to figure out his bat path.... swing etc
Yeah, I tried to think of the correct approach. He is so valuable for middle infield defense. Does Dubon do enough there to make that switch? Hard to say, but I think Dusty is doing it the right way by pitch hitting for him late.
He was never going to be as good as his postseason run last year. It’s baseball where flukes happen. The stros were just lucky he was an unknown at the time and caught some fire. Happens all across the league with different players. He just isn’t that good at the plate and folks just need to understand more realistic expectations. His calling card will continue to be his defense for the most part
The postseason is not real, and way too many fans forget this annually. The small sample seizes are prone to extreme surges that are not sustainable and no one should read into anything in to it. His run last year was well-timed - but he was never that player. And this slump he's in right now isn't him, either. Jeremy Pena posted a .715 OPS last season, and October made everyone forget it. He was, more or less, having the same season through July 5 (the date of his last HR) with a .717 OPS, and then... not sure what changed. His OB% soared (.343 the rest of the year; up from .306) and his slugging % crashed (.411 -> .349). He finished the year with a .705 OPS - which isn't terribly different from last year, overall - but it was built differently. I don't believe there's any reason to sound the alarm. He's an elite defensive SS and, honestly, if the OB% can be sustained &some of his power could return... we would live all day with a SS posting a ~.750 OPS with his glove. But right now, he's just in a terrible, ill-timed slump.
He said before the playoffs he was bringing it back. He has to actually do something productive to use it so that's why you're not seeing it.
He hasn't hit a HR since we switched from astro-turf. This is slightly more than a slump. He did adjust his swing to try to recognize and make contact with sliders better, and it basically has him neutralized by fastballs which account heavily for the above breakdown. All of the damage he did last year was on fastballs. And he's still getting those (not being pitched to differently wherever he bats)... he's just not doing damage with them.
He has a .325 OPS in the ALCS - *that's* the slump I was referring to. In terms of the second half of his regular season, he definitely had a power slump - but raising your OB% 20 points isn't a slump, IMO. If a ~340 OB% is sustainable - and he did post a .346 his final 312 PAs - that's more than acceptable with his glove.
I thought the post-season sample sizes are not to be mentioned ever...lol. The power slump is the biggest metric change overall though. And it makes sense that his OBP would go up as he's intentionally trying to recognize the slider and avoid swinging at that pitch... but its slowed his bat speed to where the power is just non existent on fastballs that he crushed last year. If this is who he has to be going forward, that's fine... as his defense still will have him in the everyday lineup. Its just baffling that he can't even hit a HR by accident in over 3 months. This is beyond Morgan Ensberg-like proportions (but he too went through this sort of adjustment/re-adjustment/no more power phase).
Hidalgo got fat... there was just no social media back then to question it so everybody took the beat writers assessment that he was merely trying to bulk up. He bulked up in his waist as well. He got in better shape going into 2003 and had a very good season.
Jeremy Pena was never as good as his post season and as fans, never should have expected any kind of repeat. He is David Freese, a perfectly good MLB ballplayer who is the 6th or 7th best player in a great team and has a huge, unexpected post season. David averaged about 2 WAR per season for 10 years, had some great postseason and some clunkers.
