Jump to content

  • Welcome to AngelsWin.com

    AngelsWin.com - THE Internet Home for Angels fans! Unraveling Angels Baseball ... One Thread at a Time.

    Register today to comment and join the most interactive online Angels community on the net!

    Once you're a member you'll see less advertisements. If you become a Premium member and you won't see any ads! 

     

IGNORED

Fletcher left tonight’s game with hip tightness, dealt with injury before season

mmc

By mmc
in LA Angels | MLB Daily

 Share

Recommended Posts

tdawg87 Hall of Fame

tdawg87

Posted
Posted

I'm pretty sure I could get Fletcher out. 55 mph "fastball" at his shoulders and he'll pop it up to deep right field. Only "deep right" because I can't pitch.

He has made zero adjustments and I'm wondering what the fuck our hitting coaches are doing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Docwaukee Hall of Fame

Docwaukee

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

It's only 5 games but @Dochalohas been warning us that this could happen.

He looks exactly the same as he did last year. No adjustments. No nothing. And we don’t have a legit replacement for him.

I don't know what happened for sure.  

2018 he had a 4.9% walk rate and then 8.4% and 8.7% the next two years.  Then back to 4.7% last year.  

His outside the zone swing rate was 25% and 27% in those good years and jumped to 33% last year.  

His zone swing rate was 49% each of the good years and 61% last year.  And his overall swing rate has gone from about 37% to 46%.  

His contact rates haven't changed so he's just swinging at more crap and putting those in play for outs.  

So he's essentially taking 30 walks per year and exchanging them for outs.  If he had done that last year he'd be about .275/.340 instead of the .262/.297 he produced.  

My question is Why?  

His approach was working.  And then he changed it.  

Are pitchers approaching him differently?  Not according to the numbers.  He seems to be being attacked about the same with similar pitch mix and % of pitches he's getting in the zone.  

So why did he change?  Is this something he's decided to do on his own or is the staff encouraging him to 'put the ball in play' more.  Because he's clearly not a good bad ball hitter.  He's a bad ball contact maker which is a recipe for additional out in the current way that baseball works.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
totdprods Hall of Fame

totdprods

Posted
Posted

@Dochalo I think it's two things - like you alluded, I think they've trying tinkering with him to either 1) get him to walk more or 2) double-down on the make-contact approach.
I can't really tell which based off the numbers or by watching, but it seems fairly evident some sort of effort went into changing his approach at the plate. 

And I think the other is the league simply has more data on him and has shifted their defense just enough to mitigate. Outfielders are in and shading the corners more, and Fletcher doesn't gap it very often - when he does, it's often lofty enough for the speedier outfielders (or mid-infielders since Fletch doesn't have much pop) to range over and nab it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Angelsjunky Hall of Fame

Angelsjunky

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, totdprods said:

@Dochalo I think it's two things - like you alluded, I think they've trying tinkering with him to either 1) get him to walk more or 2) double-down on the make-contact approach.
I can't really tell which based off the numbers or by watching, but it seems fairly evident some sort of effort went into changing his approach at the plate. 

And I think the other is the league simply has more data on him and has shifted their defense just enough to mitigate. Outfielders are in and shading the corners more, and Fletcher doesn't gap it very often - when he does, it's often lofty enough for the speedier outfielders (or mid-infielders since Fletch doesn't have much pop) to range over and nab it. 

I echo some of this here.

Not to repeat myself, but I think it is a combination of a volatile BABIP due to the nature of his hitting style and the shift. He should be better than he was last year, but he's probably closer to that then what we saw in 2020. But more to the point: he's going to fluctuate, year to year, probably within a .260 - .310 BA range. If the "shift theorem" is correct, the top end might be whittled down a bit so it is more like .250 - .290.

All of which probably makes him more of a utility player than a bonafide starter.

In a way, he reminds me of latter-day Erstad, but without any of Erstad's occasional pop or stellar defense. I've mentioned Erstad's comment before, when asked what his approach was: he said, "I don't have an approach, I tinker." That's not what you want to hear, and doesn't yield consistently good results. It is also why his crazy 2000 season (.355 BA) was sandwiched between two crappy ones (.253, .258 - but in the high offense era). In fact, I'm guessing that there's never been a season in which a player hit .350 between two .250s seasons - at least when healthy all three years.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...