4/25 reds game 3
- Thread starter msstate7
- Start date
I feel like the biggest problem with Ender right now is that he’s one of 3 LHH OF on the roster. Acuna’s gotta play and Neck’s gonna be in the lineup most days. That just leaves us with Ender and Joyce. Can’t really platoon 2 lefties. Would a Joyce/Duvall platoon make up for Ender tanking and if so who do you kick off the roster to make that happen. I guess you could go Joyce/Culberson/Camargo out there. Seems like more ABs at 1 position from those guys than the club was looking for though. I’d really be against going outside the organization for an OF but I’m not quite sure how we’d deploy the internal options.
nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
Camargo is our platoon guy for Ender or Muk. Since Ender is not hitting well right now, it should mainly be an Ender/Camargo platoon.
was just going to go pull these.
he's been extremely frustrating..but always is to start the season.
if he puts up close to his usual 3 WAR this year, we'll be happy the knee-jerk reaction of benching him didn't happen.
msstate7
Well-known member
Then start playing him in June
nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
he has had some big Mays
Acuña’s Bat Flip
NL Rookie of the Year
Then he wouldn't regress to the norm until August.
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Southcack77
Well-known member
K rate was 15% in April/May
8% in June
Then 12.2 - 13.6 % for remainder of season.
Just noticed that because I was a little unsure about the idea of using a month worth of Ks as a proxy for the season. I'd like to read a bit more about that, because I feel based on nothing but experience that a lot of icy springs for Ks often thaw as hitters get warmed up or adjusted a bit.
Not that it would be a shock to me that Donaldson would see another jump in K rate. That's probably expected.
50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
You have it in a nutshell.
My only problem is if he gets too "slap happy," he starts having these goofy ABs where he's trying to be cute and ends up hitting two-hoppers to the SS. We always used to yell "down and hard" in the dugout and while that is the wrong approach for big guys in today's game, it's really what Ender has to do to be effective. He can spray line drives all over the place when his head is in the right place.
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I think amateur coaches tell players "down and hard" because the vast majority of players can't hit the ball out of the ballpark, or even to the OF gaps reliably. It took me a full year in a D1 conditioning program to gain ~20 pounds before I could even sniff the grass beyond the OF wall with any regularity in BP. So in the case of 99.9% of all young baseball players, hitting GBs is better than hitting easy FB outs.
It turns into an issue when coaches at elite colleges tell actual professional-caliber hitters to hit the ball "down and hard" because they aren't really in tune with high level baseball despite being the leader of a high level program.
We can easily identify the issue Ender is having, and we don't even need advanced stats to do it. How to fix it isn't something anyone here can competently comment on, despite their glorious days on the Little League field. It will be up to the Braves coaching staff and Ender himself to get this corrected. He's encountered the exact same issue in the past, so it stands to reason he should be able to correct course yet again.
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Acuña’s Bat Flip
NL Rookie of the Year
Agreed, we all know he is good for 4 IP but then becomes unraveled in the fifth. He could be a quality bullpen arm for us like Raisel Iglesias (I think they said his season high is 2 2/3 IP) is for the Reds just not our closer. Julio throws strikes so he could serve a valuable role for us out of the pen and then you have the mop up duty if we are getting blown out. The question is who takes his spot in the rotation? Newk? If so how many more minor league starts do we give Newk before re-inserting him into the rotation?
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Southcack77
Well-known member
Acuña’s Bat Flip;584209 Julio throws strikes ?[/QUOTE said:
Acuña’s Bat Flip
NL Rookie of the Year
For four innings (or roughly 2 times through the order) he is mostly sharp.
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Acuña’s Bat Flip
NL Rookie of the Year
Ender has absolutely zero confidence in himself at the plate right now, in his AB in the ninth inning he popped a ball up to the left side and just slumped his shoulders immediately like he knew it was going to be caught but it turns out the wind pushed it into the stands over the third base dugout anyway but instead of being relieved to get a hack on the house you could just tell he had no interest in being up there at the plate in that moment. It was last year or the year before he and Flowers had beautiful ABs working the Marlins relievers over down in Florida to start a rally but now it is just like he has no plan at the plate at all no matter what the situation is.
Southcack77
Well-known member
11.08 k/9, 3.46 bb/9 1st time Through
7.36 k/9, 7.36 bb/9 2nd time Through
Good evidence here that relief work might be better for him.
We’d be paying him almost like a closer buts it’s sunk cost now.
Acuña’s Bat Flip
NL Rookie of the Year
The eye test says he should be able to be useful for two innings at least.