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Thread: Worrying trend with Acuna

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    Worrying trend with Acuna

    Not worried in the long haul, because this kid is too freakishly gifted. But his whiffs have been creeping up, and he's noticeably late on every fastball. Not ones up in the zone, but balls down the pipe as well. He has insane bat speed, so it's not that. He has been crushing breaking balls. Almost all of his homers lately are on offspeed pitches except for the opposite field homer off Urena. Would be nice to see him start pulling fastballs again and hitting them with authority.

    Do we think he's just sitting offspeed most of the time and trusting he's quick enough to react to fastballs? I have no other explanation.

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    if my thought dreams could be seen goldfly's Avatar
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    i'm not worried about Acuña
    "For there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it." Amanda Gorman

    "When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross"

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    Quote Originally Posted by atl717 View Post
    Not worried in the long haul, because this kid is too freakishly gifted. But his whiffs have been creeping up, and he's noticeably late on every fastball. Not ones up in the zone, but balls down the pipe as well. He has insane bat speed, so it's not that. He has been crushing breaking balls. Almost all of his homers lately are on offspeed pitches except for the opposite field homer off Urena. Would be nice to see him start pulling fastballs again and hitting them with authority.

    Do we think he's just sitting offspeed most of the time and trusting he's quick enough to react to fastballs? I have no other explanation.
    He gets big. Needs to stay quick.

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    Acuna’s last 2 weeks: .323/.397/.618/.1012

    Last month: .296/.356/.509/.865

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    Quote Originally Posted by CyYoung31 View Post
    Acuna’s last 2 weeks: .323/.397/.618/.1012

    Last month: .296/.356/.509/.865
    Very worrisome

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    Quote Originally Posted by CyYoung31 View Post
    Acuna’s last 2 weeks: .323/.397/.618/.1012

    Last month: .296/.356/.509/.865
    I'm not talking about the numbers. And his strikeouts are going up, those numbers will fall. He will adjust. It's just an observation that he's mostly doing damage on offspeed.

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    It's OVER 5,000! zbhargrove's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by atl717 View Post
    I'm not talking about the numbers. And his strikeouts are going up, those numbers will fall. He will adjust. It's just an observation that he's mostly doing damage on offspeed.
    There are really no studies I’ve seen saying a slight increase in K’s will drag all your other stats down if you’re doing everything else right. Much ado about nothing

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    I don’t see him as being late on fastballs. His barrel path is a bit off, seems when he tries to launch pullside that he’s cutting off the strike zone, not staying through it. It’s amazing he’s been as successful as he continues to be with his swing being a bit off. Lesser talent would completely tank when their barrel path drifts askew.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diesel View Post
    I don’t see him as being late on fastballs. His barrel path is a bit off, seems when he tries to launch pullside that he’s cutting off the strike zone, not staying through it. It’s amazing he’s been as successful as he continues to be with his swing being a bit off. Lesser talent would completely tank when their barrel path drifts askew.
    How do you 'fix' that? Stay down on your front side for longer?
    Natural Immunity Croc

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    Quote Originally Posted by zbhargrove View Post
    There are really no studies I’ve seen saying a slight increase in K’s will drag all your other stats down if you’re doing everything else right. Much ado about nothing
    Yeah the reality is the strikeout will always be a part of his game. It was obvious before he came up, and it's still obvious now. Would I like for it to be lower? Yes, but it's not all that likely that he's going to ever be better than around 20-22% as an overall.

    Although there's problems with the other guy involved here, while Acuna was the Braves best position prospect since Heyward, he was not viewed as the best pure "hit" in the system, like a Freddie. That guy that was viewed as the best pure "hit" is Ozzie Albies.
    Aggression with prospects is fine, but being stupid is not. There should be a way to find a happy medium between a Pirates like idea of being overly cautious with prospects and going stupidly fast with prospects.

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    Quote Originally Posted by thethe View Post
    How do you 'fix' that? Stay down on your front side for longer?
    Play a 3 game series against the Marlins. That seems to get him in a groove.

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    Almost all stats for players fluctuate above and below their true talent level.

    https://www.fangraphs.com/graphs.asp...pe=mult&gt1=15

    This 15 game rolling average chart shows Acuna is in the middle of a stretch where his K rate is at a local maximum. There is nothing else to read into. He has Kd this often before, and he will K this often again.

    Acuna is fine. Acuna will be fine. I have zero worry about Acuna.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Enscheff View Post
    Almost all stats for players fluctuate above and below their true talent level.

    https://www.fangraphs.com/graphs.asp...pe=mult&gt1=15

    This 15 game rolling average chart shows Acuna is in the middle of a stretch where his K rate is at a local maximum. There is nothing else to read into. He has Kd this often before, and he will K this often again.

    Acuna is fine. Acuna will be fine. I have zero worry about Acuna.
    On balance opposite field hr .... just gorgeous.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Russ2dollas View Post
    On balance opposite field hr .... just gorgeous.
    Yeah, but he struck out a few times last week.

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    This thread aged well...

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    I remember the expressions of concern last year when he couldn't catch up to Kimbrel's fastball...we all know what happened the next day
    "I am a victim, I will tell you. I am a victim."

    "I am your retribution."

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    Dude I am not worried about his production. I just made the observation that he is killing offspeed and missing fastballs. Nothing has changed. He's still a stud.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Enscheff View Post
    This thread aged well...
    On the other hand, only one of his 4 hits today was on a FB. OP is vindicated!

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    Quote Originally Posted by mqt View Post
    On the other hand, only one of his 4 hits today was on a FB. OP is vindicated!
    The hit on the fastball was a blooper where he was late. He's seeing offspeed so well right now I really think he's just looking for it until he is in a favorable count.

    It's just an observation. Maybe worry is the wrong word. He has been missing fastballs for the last month and yet he's still killing. That's how good he is.

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    To be clear...

    Based on the small sample size of a month or less, even further made smaller by looking at an even smaller subset of data, are we worried about Acuna being able to hit fastballs?

    No. I don’t think anyone is worried about Acuna based on the eye test about fastballs this month.

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