What's going on with Ludwick?

[50YrRedsFan]

I believe he has missed 3 of the last 4 ST games. Having a terrible spring. I wouldn't mind the bad numbers, except he has K'd 10 times in 32 AB. (Only Miguel Olivo has K'd more-11 K's in 28 AB) Only 4 hits in those 32 AB. 3 singles and 1 double. Also only 1 walk. Swinging and missing everything. Only 2 weeks to get it going. Let's hope.

[Kc61]

I believe he has missed 3 of the last 4 ST games. Having a terrible spring. I wouldn't mind the bad numbers, except he has K'd 10 times in 32 AB. (Only Miguel Olivo has K'd more-11 K's in 28 AB) Only 4 hits in those 32 AB. 3 singles and 1 double. Also only 1 walk. Swinging and missing everything. Only 2 weeks to get it going. Let's hope.

On Saturday Reds played two split squad games. Ludwick played in the game v. SF. He also played Friday against the Rockies.

Some guys take awhile to get going, he will be fine.

[chuck6660]

yes, I agree there may be reason for concern, remember last season Ludwick got off to a slow start. By June I was of the opinion that he was in fact washed-up and the Ryan Ludwick from SD was what the Reds had signed...a .240 hitter with 12-15 HR potential. Luckily I was wrong and he picked things up after that, especially after Votto went down. I expect his production to dip this season, but still expect something in the neighborhood of .260/24HR/85RBI. I hope he gets off to a better start this year...there always Chris Heisey! :beerme:

[Benihana]

We'll just need Billy Hamilton to progress faster...

[Jefferson24]

We'll just need Billy Hamilton to progress faster...

He's not exactly having much success right now either. Every team seems to always have a soft spot.

[Mutaman]

Ludstick made a believer out of me last year- at the plate in the field, and in the clubhouse. He knows what he's doing. We didn't pay him that money for him to hit at Goodyear.

[kaldaniels]

Agree with the above. Unless you are scouting these guys day in-and-out and you stumble across a major issue, there is no reason to care about spring training stats.

2 weeks to go guys, hang in there. :beerme:

[Cooper]

I'm glad there are options in the outfield cause the one guy who might fall off the cliff is Ludwick. He'll be 35 in July and 35 is like 35 used to be pre-steroids (it's really old).

My fear is Dusty will wait for that one month where Ludwick will explode....and it may not happen. They should watch his secondary stats very closely. Good teams are ready with a back up in case things go south -they also pull the plug before there is a need to do so and i thought Ludwick was the one guy who they should have let walk.

If Hamiliton can have a decent 30-40 games in AAA...i would make the change and switch guys around. Actually - i would make the change now -but that ain't gonna happen now is it.:)

[Vottomatic]

I'm glad there are options in the outfield cause the one guy who might fall off the cliff is Ludwick. He'll be 35 in July and 35 is like 35 used to be pre-steroids (it's really old).

My fear is Dusty will wait for that one month where Ludwick will explode....and it may not happen. They should watch his secondary stats very closely. Good teams are ready with a back up in case things go south -they also pull the plug before there is a need to do so and i thought Ludwick was the one guy who they should have let walk.

If Hamiliton can have a decent 30-40 games in AAA...i would make the change and switch guys around. Actually - i would make the change now -but that ain't gonna happen now is it.:)

Dusty made comments about Heisey's importance earlier in ST. I'm hoping Dusty realizes with Ludwick being 35, and Choo struggling against LH's, that Heisey rotates in for these 2 guys more regularly this season. Not that I want to see more of Heisey. I'd just like to keep those two guys fresh.

[_Sir_Charles_]

Some guys take awhile to get going, he will be fine.

I agree with this in general...but let's not forget, last season was the first season he's even been halfway decent in a long while. It's no certainty that he'll duplicate last year. He could just as easily duplicate his SD numbers. *shudders*

So I'm not concerned due to his spring thus far, but I do have some concerns in regards to counting on him.

[traderumor]

Most of Ludwick's numbers last year came after Votto went down. I was ready to kick him to the curb the first two months of the season, referred to him as the most boring player on the team. Then he became a legitimate middle of the order bat out of nowhere. He's a power guy, most are notoriously streaky.

[RedsManRick]

Spring Training is a time in which guys get small samples of playing time against a nearly random assortment of professional baseball talent during which they are working on specific parts of their craft rather than simply maximizing performance.

The only thing to waste time thinking about for veteran players is health or a professional scouting assessment that gives reason for alarm. Short of that, it's reading tea leaves.

[smixsell]

Ludstick made a believer out of me last year- at the plate in the field, and in the clubhouse. He knows what he's doing. We didn't pay him that money for him to hit at Goodyear.

This.

[LeDoux]

Spring Training is a time in which guys get small samples of playing time against a nearly random assortment of professional baseball talent during which they are working on specific parts of their craft rather than simply maximizing performance.

The only thing to waste time thinking about for veteran players is health or a professional scouting assessment that gives reason for alarm. Short of that, it's reading tea leaves.

I completely agree. We do not want to be foolish enough to try and read tea leaves. However, his horoscope for this week in very telling:


Cranky's no way to start this week, but you'll have to make a real effort to avoid it -- get a little exercise and give yourself a treat. Then, from Tuesday through sometime Thursday, it's the stars that are boosting your morale -- look for rejuvenating energy, inspirational ideas and spot-on intuition. You have an extravagant streak around Friday or Saturday, but check your budget before you indulge it -- and ask yourself whether it'll make you happy in a meaningful way. Simple can be best. Tidy up on Sunday, and catch up with someone you miss, too.

Look for him to bust out of the gates this weekend. Let's just hope he doesn't overindulge his bugdet and end up on the DL!

[redsmetz]

Dusty made comments about Heisey's importance earlier in ST. I'm hoping Dusty realizes with Ludwick being 35, and Choo struggling against LH's, that Heisey rotates in for these 2 guys more regularly this season. Not that I want to see more of Heisey. I'd just like to keep those two guys fresh.

I don't mean to be quarrelsome this afternoon, but how exactly is Choo struggling against lefties? Looking at the stats page for the Reds, it shows that he's 4 for 8 against lefthanders with an OPS of 1.056. I do agree that Heisey, as Dusty has said, is an integral cog for the team this year to keep the other outfielders fresh.

[Mutaman]

Choo's a .300 hitter against righties and .250 against lefties over his career. Hopefully Heisey will get plenty of time against the latter. In any event, left handers have not been this teams problem over the past few years.

[Vottomatic]

I don't mean to be quarrelsome this afternoon, but how exactly is Choo struggling against lefties? Looking at the stats page for the Reds, it shows that he's 4 for 8 against lefthanders with an OPS of 1.056. I do agree that Heisey, as Dusty has said, is an integral cog for the team this year to keep the other outfielders fresh.

According to Baseball-Reference, in 2012, in 216 plate appearances against lefthanded pitchers, Choo batted .199. In a little over 900 plate appearances though, he is a career .249 hitter.

[Caveat Emperor]

Veterans go to spring training to "get their work in" -- unless he's seeing a doctor, I wouldn't care a bit about what any vet does in the spring.

[redsmetz]

According to Baseball-Reference, in 2012, in 216 plate appearances against lefthanded pitchers, Choo batted .199. In a little over 900 plate appearances though, he is a career .249 hitter.

Sorry, the way you wrote it made it sound like you were talking about the present situation. But I'm not sure it's fair to isolate one bad year (even if it was the preceding one). Likewise, just breaking apart his career numbers, it looks like there's some lefties he's hit quite well. I'm not terribly worried about it. The bench guys will get their playing time and we'll keep everybody fresh.

[Salukifan2]

Choo's a .300 hitter against righties and .250 against lefties over his career. Hopefully Heisey will get plenty of time against the latter. In any event, left handers have not been this teams problem over the past few years.

What is really interesting about this is that Ludwick is traditionally much better against Righties then he is lefties (2011 and 2009 are exceptions but not by alot and 11 was injury plagued). Which is not what i would have expected. That outfield could potentially be held pretty dormant against LHP.

[50YrRedsFan]

Luddy with another 0-fer on Monday (0 for 4), but no K's. 4 for 36 and 1 walk this spring.
Ludwick is the one position player I worry about most. Outside of Arroyo, I believe he is the oldest player on the team this year.

[RadfordVA]

Luddy with another 0-fer on Monday (0 for 4), but no K's. 4 for 36 and 1 walk this spring.
Ludwick is the one position player I worry about most. Outside of Arroyo, I believe he is the oldest player on the team this year.

If you are worried about him now be prepared to worry for a long time if his struggles continue. After all since he had the slow start last season it is not like the reds are going to, or should cut his playing time if he struggles first 2 months. If they did that last year they would've missed out on his really nice season. He would have to struggle really far into the season this time around for reds to do something about it.

[texasdave]

Luddy with another 0-fer on Monday (0 for 4), but no K's. 4 for 36 and 1 walk this spring.
Ludwick is the one position player I worry about most. Outside of Arroyo, I believe he is the oldest player on the team this year.

Ludwick did hit the ball hard three times tonight and was trying to go up the middle or to right. Those are encouraging signs.

[Hillsdale87]

What is really interesting about this is that Ludwick is traditionally much better against Righties then he is lefties (2011 and 2009 are exceptions but not by alot and 11 was injury plagued). Which is not what i would have expected. That outfield could potentially be held pretty dormant against LHP.

Heisey is the same throughout his career. Heisey's career OPS is actually .150 higher against righties than against lefties. If he didn't have to face lefties, he could be an above average hitter :). Strange that they would have so much more success against RHP. As much as Choo has struggled against LHP in his career, he is actually markedly better than Heisey. That said, Heisey's sample size against lefties is still relatively small, and I would love to see him get decent playing time this year.

[TeamSelig]

Ludwick already collected his pay check

[Wonderful Monds]

Ludwick already collected his pay check

We can like posts here now, where is the dislike post option?

[kaldaniels]

We can like posts here now, where is the dislike post option?

Consider my like for your post a dislike for his.

[smixsell]

Two words: SPRING TRAINING.

Ludwick will be fine.

Geez, some people on here are a little bit panic prone if you ask me.

[HometownHero]

Ludwick hit .283 last spring and then started the season by hitting under .200 the first quarter of the season. Cozart hit .345 with a OPS just over .900 then ended up with a line of .246/.288/.399/.687 last year.

Eric Hosmer lead 2012 ST in hits with 33, but it took him 167 AB in the regular season to reach that number on his way to hitting .232. The NL and AL's ST batting champs hit .231 and .192 during the regular season. Pujols was tied for the ST lead in HR' and hit .383 with 20 RBI but didn't hit his first HR until his 28th game, and needed 36 game to get and stay over .200 and 43 games to reach 20 RBI.

Spring Training is a lot like those Las Vegas ads with what happens there stays there as it has very little correlation with what happen when the real games start.

[klw]

Ludwick had a very low BABIP the first couple of months last year. When that "normalized" was when he seemingly turned the corner.

[RadfordVA]

Ludwick had a very low BABIP the first couple of months last year. When that "normalized" was when he seemingly turned the corner.

Is there a way to look at someones BABIP up to a certain date of a season? Haven't been able to find a way on BRef or Fangraphs. Figure I was missing something easy.

[klw]

Is there a way to look at someones BABIP up to a certain date of a season? Haven't been able to find a way on BRef or Fangraphs. Figure I was missing something easy.

I don't know of one. I remember posting last year about how horrendous his BABIP was- maybe in May or so but I was looking at the stats at the time.


Edit: Page 6 of this thread had the BABIP at .244 in late June
http://www.redszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96082&highlight=ludwick+babip&page=6

[RedEye]

Ludwick was a great signing last year as he was due to rebound. This year... I'm not so sure.

[texasdave]

Is there a way to look at someones BABIP up to a certain date of a season? Haven't been able to find a way on BRef or Fangraphs. Figure I was missing something easy.

You can look up a person's BABIP between any two points in the season on baseball-reference.com.

Go to game logs.
click on which two games you want the period to cover. Voila!

I hope that was clear. If not, I will try again.

PS Ludwick's BABIP from Opening Day until May 15th was .216.

[RadfordVA]

You can look up a person's BABIP between any two points in the season on baseball-reference.com.

Go to game logs.
click on which two games you want the period to cover. Voila!

I hope that was clear. If not, I will try again.

PS Ludwick's BABIP from Opening Day until May 15th was .216.

Ok cool thanks. That is what I normally do but since it didn't list BABIP as stat I didn't think it would work. But it does pop up when you choose the games. Thanks!

[RadfordVA]

A follow up does anyone now know how to do the same thing for line drive rates and such. Was curious if Ludwick started to hit the ball harder at a much higher rate?

[M2]

Ludwick was a great signing last year as he was due to rebound. This year... I'm not so sure.

This year he may be due to debound.

I don't worry about it so much because I consider Ludwick a value-added player rather than an essential. If he can deliver something like last season, then the Reds have a pretty scary lineup. If he can't then Heisey and Paul can cover for him in the short-term and there's still plenty of quality bats to handle the middle lineup duties on this team.

If the team can cover for the loss of Votto for much of last season, it can handle Ludwick not earning his contract.

[REDREAD]

This year he may be due to debound.

I don't worry about it so much because I consider Ludwick a value-added player rather than an essential. If he can deliver something like last season, then the Reds have a pretty scary lineup. If he can't then Heisey and Paul can cover for him in the short-term and there's still plenty of quality bats to handle the middle lineup duties on this team.

If the team can cover for the loss of Votto for much of last season, it can handle Ludwick not earning his contract.

If the bar is simply "better than Heisey/Paul", than I'm not worried about Ludwick at all. I know that's not the point you were trying to make, but I think even if Ludwick declines a bit, it's not a horrible mistake to bring him back.

The Reds have no one on the farm to play LF, and really no one other than Ludwick in the current organization. Resigning Ludwick makes a lot more sense than the other FA OFers that were available. It buys the Reds some time to come up with a longterm solution.

Anyhow, the price for bringing Ludwick back was giving him a 2 year deal. I think that's reasonable. It sure would've sucked to have a gaping hole in LF this year because we are worried about 2014. It's time to win now. Man, it feels great to say that :)

I doubt Ludwick will have as strong of a 2nd half as he did last season (he was just amazing then), but I hope he gets off to a better start in the beginning of the season. Honestly, Frasier is another guy we have to worry about regressing this year, IMO. Maybe even Cozart. Hopefully not, but that's just the nature of the game.

[RedsManRick]

If the bar is simply "better than Heisey/Paul", than I'm not worried about Ludwick at all. I know that's not the point you were trying to make, but I think even if Ludwick declines a bit, it's not a horrible mistake to bring him back.

The Reds have no one on the farm to play LF, and really no one other than Ludwick in the current organization. Resigning Ludwick makes a lot more sense than the other FA OFers that were available. It buys the Reds some time to come up with a longterm solution.

Anyhow, the price for bringing Ludwick back was giving him a 2 year deal. I think that's reasonable. It sure would've sucked to have a gaping hole in LF this year because we are worried about 2014. It's time to win now. Man, it feels great to say that :)

I doubt Ludwick will have as strong of a 2nd half as he did last season (he was just amazing then), but I hope he gets off to a better start in the beginning of the season. Honestly, Frasier is another guy we have to worry about regressing this year, IMO. Maybe even Cozart. Hopefully not, but that's just the nature of the game.

While not at all ideal, we shouldn't ignore the possibility of Henry Rodriguez at 3B and Frazier in LF.

[REDREAD]

While not at all ideal, we shouldn't ignore the possibility of Henry Rodriguez at 3B and Frazier in LF.

I guess that's possible, but Henry Rod only OPSed a combined 680 with all the clubs he played for last year.
He seemed overmatched in the limited time he got with the Reds.
He doesn't seem ready yet, although it is a possible fallback plan if Ludwick flops.
I think I'd be more inclined to ride it out with Ludwick/Heisey/Paul if Ludwick did flop.