2018: The Year Of The Venezuelan Trout

I’m encouraged that he’s showing a lot more patience this month: his bb% almost doubling, at 10.8%, the 5.9% he posted in August—which was itself a massive upgrade over the June–July nadir (2.7% and 1.2%, respectively). His k% is also down to 13.5% is September—and some of his struggles (.227 AVG, but good on-base and power ISOs) are definitely luck-derived (.255 babip).

He’s going to end up with a solid line, because he was so otherworldly in the first two months (thanks to the fickleness of luck swinging the opposite way)—and he’s obviously bringing a lot of value with the glove—but if you squint you can see building-blocks he can bring into next year.
 
jpx7 said:
I’m encouraged that he’s showing a lot more patience this month: his bb% almost doubling, at 10.8%, the 5.9% he posted in August—which was itself a massive upgrade over the June–July nadir (2.7% and 1.2%, respectively). His k% is also down to 13.5% is September—and some of his struggles (.227 AVG, but good on-base and power ISOs) are definitely luck-derived (.255 babip).

He’s going to end up with a solid line, because he was so otherworldly in the first two months (thanks to the fickleness of luck swinging the opposite way)—and he’s obviously bringing a lot of value with the glove—but if you squint you can see building-blocks he can bring into next year.
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He seems to be showing some signs of figuring it out.

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We saw him really struggle with his plate discipline for ~40 games in the middle of this season as pitchers continued to throw him more and more pitches out of the zone.

Around game 130 he seems to have made an effort to be more selective, and pitchers immediately responded by throwing more strikes. Hopefully that improvement is real and sticks for the rest of this season as well as 2019.

I think Ozzie will be fine. He just won't adjust as quickly as we've seen Acuna adjust...which is ok.

Just like folks got over hyped on him as a prospect, then got down on him when he was "struggling" in AAA (and wanted to trade him for Dee Gordon), then got over hyped on his unsustainable HR binge early in 2018, they are getting down on him for not adjusting as quickly as they'd like.
 
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Ozzie's season is what I thought we would see from Acuna. Bouts of greatness and moments where he seems lost. Which is normal and fine for players their age. Acuna being redonkulous shouldn't take away from what Ozzie is and will be.
 
thewupk said:
Ozzie's season is what I thought we would see from Acuna. Bouts of greatness and moments where he seems lost. Which is normal and fine for players their age. Acuna being redonkulous shouldn't take away from what Ozzie is and will be.
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Correct. What Albies is doing is what very talented, very young players do. They perform well, then the league adjusts, and they have periods of struggle. But overall, they still have a positive impact. What Acuna is doing is what upper echelon HOFers do. They quickly adjust back to the league, and then they just dominate.
 
I think they already did tweak Ozzie's mechanics some. His leg kick is a lot less violent now. But right now it looks like, even when he makes contact, he looks like he's mostly arms with little/no legs.

I think he needs to bring back his toe tap move lefty as that's the simplest move, but he might not be able to work on that until a break. Because Acuna did this over the all star break.
 
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weso1 said:
Seitzer doesn't get enough credit. I think he may be an elite hitting coach. His recommendations to Acuna are akin to Baylor's recommendations to Chipper.
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I agree, Bowman even tried to give Snit credit for his helping Acuna. AA and Seitzer are our strengths despite the media and broadcasters giving Snit and even Hernandez the credit.
 
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