Diamondbacks Bullpen

[McCray]

all the talk about tracy got me thinking. i was looking at his fangraphs, and it seems, though i could be wrong, that he might actually be getting better. we've been hypothosizing on here that perhaps tracy is trying for more power, and that's been hurting him, so i looked at his slg % for the year, and noticed it significantly dropped off around midseason, or slightly before.

his bb% shot up around that time (though it is regressing more again now), and i began to wonder if he stopped hitting for power, and perhaps stopped swinging at bad pitches -- the ones he was K'ing on big time.

sure enough, a little before midseason his K% dropped off at a pretty steady rate for a long time, from almost 30% of his PAs to a little over 15%. and his bb/k ratio elevated considerably for a while around midseason, though it's starting to tank again.

ld% stays relatively the same all season, but his fb% drops for a while after the same almost mid season point, while his gb% rises.

was tracy trying to control the strike zone more, during that time, and trying to hit the ball on the ground more? has he been getting a little better, or at least less bad?

it must be noted that virtually all these upticks in his trends seem to have ended; that is, he's starting to tank again. but i'm wondering if that was perhaps a significant effort on his part to "put the ball in play" and "hit them on the ground" and "stop swinging at horseshit pitches", as we've all been screaming at our tvs for him to do.

note: this is my first time trying to really analyze fan graphs as anything more than fun -- am i close to the mark, or am i reading too much into random noise? that the trend appears in so many varied aspects of his offensive game (which pitches to hit, which to lay off, where to hit them, to hit for power or not) makes me think it's more than noise, but i honestly don't know.

and it's 1:30 in the damn morning.
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Hank, you're dead to me.

[charlie]

Just from my observation, I believe Tracy has developed two bad habits at the plate.

First, his body movement on the pitch developed into one which should allow him to pull the ball, in my view an attempt to provide more power. By throwing his butt out and turning early in this way, he's left himself highly vulnerable to pitches away. He must lunge somewhat at them and can only put an arm-swing on them, resulting in weakly hit balls to the left side and even up the middle. The only pitches he puts a "power" swing on are inside corner pitches and he just doesn't see many of them anymore.

Second, Tracy seems to have no conception of what pitchers are trying to do to him. He most often takes first pitch fastballs, often right down the middle, and then finds himself behind in the count. Then he begins swinging at pitches out of the strike zone and since most often those are away pitches, he cannot get any kind of power swing on them at all, given his body movement. So he's somewhat stuck with flailing at away pitches instead of being able to hit them with force.

Finally, he's become a real sucker for sharply breaking pitches low and inside, again (IMO) in an attempt to provide power. He just can't seem to even recognize them for what they are anymore and he certainly can't lay off them, especially when behind in the count.

With a few exceptions, I think the vast majority of Tracy's basehits these last 3-4 months have been of the bloop type, dribblers through the infield, little pop flies which elude defenders, with the occasional harder slice hit to LF and the rare line drive shot somewhere. Not many balls hit fair down the RF line or in the RF/CF gap.

Tracy needs to decide what kind of hitter he wants to be and then adjust his plate approach to accomodate it. If he wants to be a pull hitter, he ought to adopt the Darrell Porter stance close to the plate and dare the pitcher to throw it inside. That way he might at least cover the outside part of the plate better. If he wants to be more of a contact hitter, he needs to step into the ball instead of trying to twist away from it and still make solid contact.

IMO, Tracy needs a lot of close personal instruction and hitting/swinging repetitions in the off season to correct these faults, plus some serious teaching in recognition of the strike zone and in a method of attacking the pitcher.

Perhaps someone else sees this differently?
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formerly ROF

[Robert S.]

[moviegeekjn]

Watching the Cardinals feed last night, they were promoting an upcoming TV special on Albert Pujols. Al Hrobosky mentioned how Albert is always willing to help other players with hitting--the Cardinals have him do a spring training workshop with younger players.

BUT this is not just limited to helping others within the organization--that a number of other players have sent video tape of their at bats to Albert for him to examine and offer suggestions. He apparently is very happy to do what he can to help other players when he can.

Not that I can imagine Chad or most Dbacks ever asking for coaching hints from Albert, but it certainly couldn't hurt.

[matt]

Wow, what a guy. I guess he will make a nice hitting coach someday.

[levski]

So, anyone ever think the Dbacks should've taken Alex Gordon instead of Justin Upton?

I love Upton's potential, but some days, I wonder...
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Old school Hollywood baseball,
Joe Girardi is ten feet tall,
Old school Hollywood baseball,
Me and Frenchy walk a ton.

And Tony Pena cuts in line...

[shoewizard]

Don't look at me....

All I did was look at his performance this year and speculate he just may not be the next Griffey or A-Rod and everyone got on my case.

Well.....I still would have drafted Upton with the first pick if I were Rizzo, so can't play the hindsight game here.

[McCray]

i'd have gone for upton too. i mean, he was the universal concensus. but yeah, i've been watching gordon hit like a man possessed and having second thoughts...
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Hank, you're dead to me.

[Dangerfield]

I could go on a long diatribe about this, but to keep simple, Chad got homer and pull happy, and his head now comes off the ball, to go along with a million other problems. I think I know who screwed him up. MY moneys on him getting it back, though, due to his great hand eye, and his nice flat short stroke. NOw his defense, on the other hand.
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My wife is always trying to get rid of me. The other day she told me to put the garbage out. I said to her I already did. She told me to go and keep an eye on it

[Robert S.]

[Robert S.]

Wasn't Gordon in the Texas League this year?

[matt]

We will have to wait till next year to see how Upton progresses. Maybe Gordon will end up being the superior pick but I don't think we can criticize the decision at all. Everyone *knew* he was the best pick. It wasn't even close. Sometimes things just don't work out. Maybe he will dominate Lancaster.

[matt]

[DesertKnight]