Casey's Troubles

by Chronicles on May 10, 2007 4:12 PM PDT Comment 6 comments

MOVED OVER FROM THE DIARIES...

Hey gang.

It may be gauche to link oneself, but I mentioned Casey's frequent groundouts to second in last night's chatter, so I thought I'd take a deeper look at where he's hitting the ball and if that's affecting his relatively poor numbers thus far.

Here's my post on the subject:

L I N K -to- Chronicles of the Lads

There's a lot of numbers there, as the 15 of you who read my blog would guess, but the basic summary is:

Casey hits the ball on the ground a lot, and
Casey is better when he gets the ball in the air.

In my nonprofessional opinion, Casey's swing is top-hand dominant (much like Ersty's), which leads to a lot of weak, ineffectual grounders to the second baseman (much like Ersty). Casey's shown the ability to drive the ball before (and did so for his double last night), so I think he can do it again.

He's a big strong guy, with a good eye, and he shouldn't be afraid to drive the ball and put it in the air. He's not going to get a bunch of infield hits topping it to second, given that he can't even outrun two out of three Molinas.

Anyway, I break it down at the link ...

This Fan-Post is authored by an independent fan. Tell us what you think and how you feel.

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Blog Whore

by LA Seitz on May 10, 2007 3:31 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I'd Venture a Guess

That Mickey Hatcher is responsible for fucking up his swing.

by jjackflash on May 10, 2007 4:52 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I'd venture a guess...

that he's not comfortable at the plate, for whatever reasoning.

Maybe it's the pressure of having to protect vlad (zomg kotch is 24 and a 2nd year) or it could be that he lost a lot of strength in his legs when he had mono and can't compensate now, who knows.

Honestly, he looks perturbed when he's at the plate. Years past he would walk coolly to the plate with no strain in his eyes, now it's plain as day for the pitchers to read and feed upon.

by shiftyeyedgoat on May 10, 2007 6:26 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

pressure of having to protect vlad

BINGO!

There is no excuse for having a kid who is for all intents and purposes a ROOKIE, be forced to protect Vlad.

Too much pressure. Not fair.

DarkAngel hath spoken....

by darkangel01 on May 10, 2007 7:38 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm going to go with being benched 6 of 13 games

In the last couple weeks. That would take out anyone's rhythm. Prior to this series of benchings, his OPS was .792, and he had a four game hitting streak.

~Till the Halo burns out...

by Zu Long on May 10, 2007 7:56 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Actually, he's the Ervin Santana of hitters

Check out these numbers:

Home: .305/.388/.508 142 OPS+
Away: .136/.188/.227 14 OPS+

Pressure of protecting Vlad? Maybe, but in a unique way. Overall, his numbers batting 5th are similar to batting 6th. The biggest difference in the two spots is his OBP:

Batting 5th: .265/.292/.456
Batting 6th: .250/.400/.375

Batting 5th, he is more aggressive, and drives the ball. Batting 6th, he is more selective, but less productive when he puts the ball in play.

Overall, I just think Casey is in a little slump:

He's 2 for his last 21;
Just before that, he was 5 for 15, with a double, triple and a HR

His April line of .265/.337/.446 = 113 OPS+

My guess: very inconsistent first half (after all, he missed an entire season); very solid second half.

Chronicler - thanks for the info - I am one of your fifteen readers...keep up the good work!

"When you don't know that you don't know, it's a lot different than when you do know that you don't know" - Bill Parcells

by johnnyangel101 on May 11, 2007 1:51 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs