Mirabelli and Varitek struck out 27 times in a combined 73 at bats in spring training. That's a 36.98% clip. To be fair, they walked a combined 9 times. So in actuality it is 27 Ks in 82 plate appearances...a 32.92% clip.
Not good.
What about not combined?
Varitek 13 Ks in 39 at bats (.333)/ 13Ks in 44 plate appearances 29.54%
Mirabelli 14 Ks in 34 at bats (.411)/14 Ks in 38 plate appearances 36.8%
That's terrible.
yeah...that doesn't look good. Still there is that excuse that it's just spring. We have no idea what they have been working on in Spring. Maybe they are looking for certain pitches and given that pitchers are probably under equally odd instructions (e.g. through only curves) maybe they didn't get the right pitches... Plus look at Ortiz he has 13Ks in 49 AB with 6 BB that's a 30%/27% clip....
ReplyDeleteIt's only Spring young jedi
And by "Through only curves" I mean "throw only curves"... talk about Malapropisms! I guess you could read my previous phrase as curves that get through or curves through the strike zone only...
ReplyDeleteah.. now I am stretching!
Sure, but Ortiz is going to hit .275+ with at least 40 HRs.
ReplyDeleteTek looks like he's out on his front foot...
My guess is that Ortiz would have been working on specifics like hitting the ball to a certain area, as opposed to Tek who had a bad year last year and has been trending down over the past two...
Also, Ortiz strikes out alot anyway...177 last year, 124 in '05, 133 in '04. And that is with upper 500s- over 600 at bats...
Tek also strikes out a lot. And in a lot less fewer at bats...
So what am I saying?
Well, Ortiz has been trending up...Catchers have been trending down. I would say that Ortiz will produce close to last year, and the catchers will be worse (which is bad because they were both catchers had bad numbers).
Your point is certainly well taken. Varitek and Mirabelli are declining. I guess I was trying to be the glass-is-half-full. That being said baseball Prospectus's take on the situation is not pretty. 29% attirtion from last year projected!
ReplyDeleteWow...they still give Tek some decent numbers.
ReplyDeleteIf he hits .274 with 15 HRs and 61 RBI, I'd be satisfied. I just don't even see him doing that.
They are predicting Mirabelli to be pretty much a disaster at the plate.
I can't get too worked up over spring numbers. Keith Foulke sucked in March 2004 - I seem to recall an ERA nearly in the double digits.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the pitching front. I've never been one to look at those...and even hitting can be a little deceiving.
ReplyDeleteOne, they could be smacking the cover off the ball, but right at people. They could be working on hitting the ball to the opposite field, or working on pulling outside pitches, etc...
In the Mirabelli/Tek case, though, I've seen them take truly horrific swings this spring. They are not hitting line drives at people...Of course, I haven't seen all of their at bats, that is for sure...but what I've seen is uncomfortable.
I would think Tek will be better than last year, but not back to his All-Star form of a few years back. And I have little hope for Mirabelli.
I think it should be a concern for this team. Of course, if Pedroia, Lowell, and Crisp hit, then it doesn't matter, as long as the move Tek down in the lineup.
I'm not too worried about the K's. It's their OPS of .771 that bothers me. (Yes, that's Varitek's OPS plus Mirabelli's OPS.) They have 3 extra base hits between them this spring.
ReplyDelete