FG article on Acuna's rebound

E

Enscheff

Well-known member
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/ronald-...l-the-way-back-but-the-rest-of-his-game-lags/

The short of it is his exit velocities have rebounded in 2023, but he's hitting too many grounders. I don't worry about that since he has shown the ability to elevate the ball, and I have no doubt he can get back to that again.

What I worry about is the decline in his speed, and the fact he will continue to try running the bases like an elite speedster. I would prefer to see Acuna drop the running game, and focus on being the 40+ HR monster RF he can become with less injury risk. Acuna is vastly more valuable as a reliable .900+ OPS masher than as a base-stealing guy who is going to tweak fingers and wrists and hamstrings on the base paths. He also lacks the baseball IQ to be intelligently aggressive on the bases.

Everyone should cringe at the mention of Eric Davis, and Acuna playing more like a slugger and less like a sparkplug will help reduce the risk of going down that path.
 
For as much as he drives me bananas, Acuna is 9th in the league in baserunning value and is 86th percentile sprint speed. Defensively he wasn’t that impressive before his injury (not a shock he’s always rated poorly on outfield jumps).

I guess Jaffe’s conclusion is that Acuna is slower after major reconstructive knee surgery? I hope not too many were pinning their hopes on that.
 
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This article annoys me when they suggest he can’t be a reliable center fielder anymore. He never was or was supposed to be a center fielder… he was just forced into it out off necessity when Inciarte fell off a cliff. This makes it sound like he’s lost a ton defensively when it’s been well known he’s an average to lack luster fielder with a great arm. Weird using defense to say he’s not as good.
 
CyYoung31 said:
I don’t quite buy that Acuña has slowed down that much. Going to have wait for a larger sample.
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I would agree. The eye test for me has him as fast as ever. The infield singles and first to home on medium outfield hits show me a lot. We'll see how it shakes out by seasons end.
 
thewupk said:
Acuna has 3 "bolts" so far this year which is where the run tops 30 ft/s. He clearly still has that high gear.
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I'm wondering if all the cold weather and wet weather we have had this year has him holding back a little bit. Will be interesting to see how it progresses as we get into the summer months.
 
atl717 said:
Top end speed is more telling than average.
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I tend to agree this early in the season. Looking at Acuna's 90' split time from 2021 vs 2023 we see it went from 3.78 (#8 MLB) to 3.83 (#5 MLB), so the raw juice is probably still there.

I still want him to be more cautious on the bases, especially batting in front of Olson and Riley.
 
He can certainly improve his decision-making. This is true in RF even more so than on the basepaths, and us borne out in his "jump" metrics"

Nevertheless, he is still top-end with his max sprint, and upper-quintile in average-sprint thus far. Any reports of a great slow-down in footspeed are greatly exaggerated.
 
Ronnie is just a slap hitter who likes to steal bases. He needs to be more like Ozzie and try and hit the ball one row deep into the seats.
 
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