Let's talk about Jay Bruce

[Chuckie]

I keep thinking he's going to go on one of his tears where he looks like the best player in MLB like it's a foregone conclusion. But here we are on July 21st and it hasn't happened yet. I thought it was starting to happen right before the break when he had HRs in 3 consecutive games, but he's gone right back in the tank since then.

Also troubling is his defense. I used to laugh at the "defensive metrics" that said Bruce wasn't really a good defensive RF. I remember thinking he's not good, he's great. But he's not. He botches way too many balls and often doesn't get a good jump. Now I see what the defensive metrics were saying about him. He's basically an "average" RF defensively.

Jay seemed to be getting better every season ... but he's regressed this year and it's a big concern IMO. In fairness, he did battle the knee injury early in the year, but he says he feels great. Says the knee has never felt better.

Also, my main reason for starting this thread is reverse psychology, of course.

[tomnuetten]

so who´ll replace him next year?

[villain612]

I've never seen Jay Bruce so lost at the plate before.

Injury related??

[Crumbley]

Haven't looked at the numbers for awhile, his OPS has dipped under .700. Gulp.

[jordan_tm]

Starting to remind me of Adam Dunn. (did I just say that out loud?)

[Lewdog]

I think he needs Renee Russo to get him on her couch and get in his head for awhile.

[Edd Roush]

The strikeouts have killed Jay's batting numbers this year and he doesn't have a high BABIP to make his BA look better as it did last year. The defensive statistics do not look good, either.

However, with Jay's 2014, 2015 and 2016 salaries, all the Reds can really do is continue to give him instruction and hope that he turns it around. He has to be out there every day. He has been at least a 2 fWAR player every year since 2010, so his history would suggest that he has a good shot at adding value sometime in the near future.

- - - Updated - - -

Starting to remind me of Adam Dunn. (did I just say that out loud?)

Maybe at the plate, but it should be a completely different picture in the field. And by the way, Adam Dunn at the plate was not a bad thing in Cincinnati.

[swaisuc]

I think if you wipe the slate clean starting today, you can still pencil Bruce in for the same rate of production for ROS as we've come to expect. That is the good news. I also think the production we didn't get to this point is likely "lost" and unlikely to be recovered by a monster finish. If you are going to only look at his aggregate stats on the season, I think most will be disappointed as he will be weighed down by his YTD stats.

[reds1869]

Starting to remind me of Adam Dunn. (did I just say that out loud?)

The difference being Adam Dunn got on base consistently the entire time he was here. His lowest OPS as a Red was .819 in 2003; that year was also his lowest OBP of .354. Think about that, the worst version of Adam Dunn the Reds saw got on base 35% of the time and hit 27 HR. Defense aside, this club could use the Lost Decade version of Dunn's bat.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...dunnad01.shtml

[westofyou]

Dunn as a Red

.247/.380/.520/.900

[BluegrassRedleg]

I've never seen Jay Bruce so lost at the plate before.

Injury related??

And that's saying something.

[BluegrassRedleg]

The difference being Adam Dunn got on base consistently the entire time he was here. His lowest OPS as a Red was .819 in 2003; that year was also his lowest OBP of .354. Think about that, the worst version of Adam Dunn the Reds saw got on base 35% of the time and hit 27 HR. Defense aside, this club could use the Lost Decade version of Dunn's bat.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...dunnad01.shtml

Yep. But many people *****ed incessantly over the kind of outs he made. The guy could have popped up to first base 100x a season and those same people would not have cared.

Never has a more productive player been more polarizing during his time here.

[TOBTTReds]

Starting to remind me of Adam Dunn. (did I just say that out loud?)

We could only hope that's what he does at the plate.

[Raisor]

Yep Bruce has been bad this season.

[Larry Schuler]

You know Bruce has been down when even JayBruceFan won't kick him.