Valbuena is the worst..

[IEAngelsfan]

3 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

The Angels right now:

Wow, the Rally Monkey is on his last leg.

[Jason]

Valbuena is either home run or nothing at all. 

[well_red]

2 hours ago, ArturoMoreno said:

I want to throat punch him when he flips his bat. 

You put words to thoughts I couldn't quite articulate, thank you.  

[VariousCrap]

He has been very frustrating.  He is better than this, but we won't be seeing it this season.

[zenmaster]

Well, he did have that one good game, this whole year. Release this fool.

[DMVol]

49 minutes ago, zenmaster said:

Well, he did have that one good game, this whole year. Release this fool.

I don't have a problem with him being a bench guy.....and if Escobar is out awhile, he's probably going to be the 3bman....I didn't get the platoon with Cron when he was signed and it makes less sense now....

[ten ocho recon scout]

I could see why the signed him. Insurance for the corners. But hes been brutal.

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

On 8/6/2017 at 5:05 PM, JustATroutFan said:

Pujols will retire at some point next season as soon as his career batting average is in danger of falling below .300. Then, it will be Valbuena who hits one spot behind Trout for the rest of the season. I am thinking in July that that will happen.

  "My biggest regret was letting my lifetime average drop below .300. I always felt I was a .300 hitter, and if I could change one thing that would be it"; Mickey Mantle

[Glen]

He's getting worster.

[aznhockeyguy]

I was kinda hyped when the Angels signed him from this article http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/luis-valbuena-a-potential-asset-in-2017/.  He had a good year in limited time with Houston last season.  Looking at his stats, I don't see what's wrong him, his K rate is still the same, his walk rate is a bit lower.  His batted ball rates were pretty much the same from last season, then I saw his BABIP and it's .203, which is incredibly low.    I wouldn't be shocked if he hit .300 next season to make up for the disappointing season this year.

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

1 hour ago, aznhockeyguy said:

I wouldn't be shocked if he hit .300 next season to make up for the disappointing season this year.

I would since he has never come close to .300 BA in 10 years. Last year he hit .260 in a bandbox, but more often than not he has been a .220 hitter. You just don't figure it out at 32 years old.

[ettin]

1 hour ago, aznhockeyguy said:

I was kinda hyped when the Angels signed him from this article http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/luis-valbuena-a-potential-asset-in-2017/.  He had a good year in limited time with Houston last season.  Looking at his stats, I don't see what's wrong him, his K rate is still the same, his walk rate is a bit lower.  His batted ball rates were pretty much the same from last season, then I saw his BABIP and it's .203, which is incredibly low.    I wouldn't be shocked if he hit .300 next season to make up for the disappointing season this year.

I don't know about him hitting .300 that seems like a real stretch. However it does appear that he is swinging for the fences more as his HR/FB rate is 3% higher than his career average and his IFFB% is also 3% higher. It wouldn't be a complete surprise if the Angels actually asked Valbuena to swing for the fences more particularly since they have him playing out of a traditional position of power (1B) and that they may have wanted him to replace Cron (which didn't happen.... yet) in the lineup.

His LD% is way down which means he's either putting it in the air more (which makes sense with the HR/FB and IFFB% increases) or on the ground. Notably putting the ball in the air more will reduce your BABIP overall (but not as much as his has gone down which is like 60 points).

This may be a case where the Angels coaching staff asked him to produce more slugging and it has potentially backfired. I'm not necessarily sure this is all Luis' fault. If they asked him to tweak his mechanics even slightly that could lead to an off-year.

[Angel Oracle]

Someone needs to change his swing back, if it changed.   It's not all about the HRs.    He needs to be hitting at least .240, to put up about a .330 OBP.   That could still produce about a .750 OPS, based on past seasons this decade. 

He still has the 11 HRs and 35 rbis in 225 at bats, but the OBP is putrid and he only has 7 doubles and no triples!    Soooo Ghost Pujols like!

Did Ghost Pujols become his hitting coach?

[aznhockeyguy]

55 minutes ago, ettin said:

I don't know about him hitting .300 that seems like a real stretch. However it does appear that he is swinging for the fences more as his HR/FB rate is 3% higher than his career average and his IFFB% is also 3% higher. It wouldn't be a complete surprise if the Angels actually asked Valbuena to swing for the fences more particularly since they have him playing out of a traditional position of power (1B) and that they may have wanted him to replace Cron (which didn't happen.... yet) in the lineup.

His LD% is way down which means he's either putting it in the air more (which makes sense with the HR/FB and IFFB% increases) or on the ground. Notably putting the ball in the air more will reduce your BABIP overall (but not as much as his has gone down which is like 60 points).

This may be a case where the Angels coaching staff asked him to produce more slugging and it has potentially backfired. I'm not necessarily sure this is all Luis' fault. If they asked him to tweak his mechanics even slightly that could lead to an off-year.

All plausible reasons but I just think he's been very unlucky this season.

[ettin]

48 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

Someone needs to change his swing back, if it changed.   It's not all about the HRs.    He needs to be hitting at least .240, to put up about a .330 OBP.   That could still produce about a .750 OPS, based on past seasons this decade. 

He still has the 11 HRs and 35 rbis in 225 at bats, but the OBP is putrid and he only has 7 doubles and no triples!    Soooo Ghost Pujols like!

Did Ghost Pujols become his hitting coach?

The swing plane change for hitters is a trend throughout baseball right now. Part of it is that MLB teams realize that the actual balls have changed and are now lofting farther resulting in about an increase of 5 ft. on average which is basically an increase of about 15% more HR's overall. For a hitter like Valbuena who has significant power it is in his best interest to go for more HR's. That is reflected in his HR/FB rate that is about 3% or so higher.

If this is the case (and I'm not an expert so I haven't sat down and asked Luis or watched video to see if his swing is different) I'm not sure I'm completely sold on having hitters change up any of their mechanics (unless those mechanics suck anyway) simply to get a potential increase in HR's. You look at someone like Simmons and it seems to be working but then you see someone like Valbuena where it isn't.

[floplag]

and... hes now our starting 3B    for at least the next 2 weeks

[arch stanton]

Looks like he may have figured out that they won't come inside on him until he starts doing something productive with the pitches away

[Angel Oracle]

Did someone send the oppo field double last night to Ripley's?

Back on target today,

3 at bats, 3 Ks!

[Bruce Nye]

Luis No-bueno had another sweet day this afternoon going 0-3 with 3 punch-outs.  Maybin pinch-hit for him late in the game.

[DMVol]

Really hope Cron stays in the lineup every day when Escobar is back....

[Chuck]

I seriously would rather have Pennington at 2B and Cowart at 3B, w/ Cron at 1B in exchange for Valbuena in the lineup.

It was a good idea at singing him, but it hasn't worked out. He has some of the most awful at bats I've seen.