I hate him. He sux.:
Just kidding. I feel for the guy. He's really pressing right now. You can tell it's getting to him. I've been there before, and that DOES suck. Can't buy a hit. Your defense starts to suffer because your offensive game is off and your manic about fixing it. You tear your swing apart, analyze everything, try to put it back together piece by piece and no matter what you do, it just doesn't feel "comfortable," something always feels "off." Realizing you did all of that work and it didn't fix the problem makes you more tense, more uptight, more confused. One of my coaches told me one time that when you're going bad the hardest thing to do is "not think." "Don't let your brain even think, just let your muscles, your reactions do all the work." He was right, that was the hardest thing to do. I wanted to break my swing down, analyze everything and see where the problem was. It's only natural to feel that way, I think. What eventually got me out of it was just strolling to the plate, stepping in the box, not worrying about my stance, my head position, my elbow position, my front foot, my timing, my hands, just standing there and trying to "get comfortable." When I felt comfortable, I lifted the bat and my hands and stayed there. I didn't think about pitches. I knew I'd get a fastball at some point in the AB and treated every pitch as if it were a fastball. If some guy threw me 4-5 breaking balls in a row, I was done, and would accept defeat, but if he threw me a fastball, I'd be ready. First pitch. Fastball. It was high, I let it go, but watched it all the way in. Next pitch, curve ball. Dropped in for a strike, I didn't swing. Next pitch, fastball. Mistake. Middle to outside. I drove it right over the second baseman's head. Felt like Fort Knox had just been lifted off my shoulders. I was 0-28 before that hit. I actually felt myself breathe on the way to first base for the first time in about 2 weeks. I smiled when I got there. It felt good. I went 12-25 over my next couple games.
Moral of the story, it'll come back to him. Ross won't be this terrible at the plate all year. Granted he doesn't have a high career avg in the minors, so I doubt he goes on a lengthy tear, but he won't be this terrible and lost all year at the plate. He'll recover. He just has to think less. The more he presses the worse it'll get. Finally, at some point, he'll give up, and it'll come. Some people have different opinions whether you should play a player and let him work out of it, or whether you should give the players off days to get the problem fixed. I think it depends on the manager to know what type of player he's working with. If the manager knows the player is the type that "overthinks" things (as most catchers do), then off days can actually hurt. They'll try to break every little thing down and continue to "overthink" things. That could hurt them in getting through this. Some will actually benefit from getting time off to clear their heads and removing themselves from the pressure of feeling they have to produce when in the lineup. With three catchers on the roster, Jerry Narron has the luxury to do whatever he wants. So far, it looks like Narron has opted to give Ross some rest days. He's looked better in recent AB's (Monday) but looked somewhat lost again yesterday. He's still fighting through it. It will come back to him, though. With as talented and athletic as you have to be to even make the majors, though, I'm confident it will come back to him. When it does, that's the time Jerry should take advantage of it and play him everyday, though. I'm hoping that's what he does.
