Last two weeks WT has been pretty great.
.371 .389 .457 .846
Now, let's hope he can turn two weeks into three.
It's funny, so far whenever he has shown any degree of patience whatsoever beyond a pitch or 2 he does alright. That patience always seems to be fleeting however. He's lucky I'm not his manager I'd be on him after every PA he screwed up until he showed some signs of doing it consistently.
"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."
--Woody Hayes
After the end of June it's time for the Willy T update. I must say, his little hot streak seems to have put an end to the absolute free-fall he was in mid June. He has been hitting much better and kudos to him for it.
Unfortunately, he's such a weak batter than even with a hot couple of weeks his numbers still indicate he's a drag on the offense. And that drag is set squarely at the top of the lineup.Code:NAME PA EqA OBP SLG OUTR VORP RAR RAP Willy Taveras 108 .243 .330 .330 0.64815 0.3 1.4 -3.3 Willy Taveras 201 .242 .318 .328 0.65174 -0.2 2.4 -5.6 Willy Taveras 232 .213 .281 .286 0.69397 -7.0 -3.7 -13.4 Willy Taveras 289 .221 .288 .302 0.69204 -6.8 -2.6 -15.5
He's still sub-replacement in VOPR and RAR. His Outrate still hovers at nearly 70%. His OBP has seen a bit of a bounce-back, but because it's so hit driven its still in dismal territory (see more below). His EqA remains dismally below average.
For the more traditional minded folks numbers-wise, here's his line(s). Again, he's particularly useless against lefties.Code:AVG OBP SLG OPS v Left .211 .250 .268 .518 v Right .257 .302 .314 .616
One thing that Wee-Willy can do to improve his effectiveness is take a walk. It's not news, but he's taken 15 walks this year. By way of comparison, Brandon Phillips, who's never seen a breaking ball he wouldn't swing at, has 30.
When your walk-rate is 5% you absolutely must maintain your hit rate to get on-base and avoid soaking up outs. Since the hits for him will wax and wain, and he's been fighting off a tweaked hammy, he'd be wise to work with Jacoby hardcore to learn how to take a walk.
Taking walks when you aren't getting the pitches to hit is always a good idea, but it's especially critical that Willy take walks. Unfortunately he's averaged 30 walks all year the past 3 year so he's pretty much doing what he's always done. Looks like it will take divine intervention for him to suddenly take the base on balls.
So he's back to depending on his hit rate and wheels to keep from being a trainwreck. Since he has zero power, he's depending on the infield hits (assuming his wheels are working), and for hits to fall in. Doesn't leave him much margin for error.
As far as the havoc goes, he's getting dangerously close to not being able to hit even 30 stolen bases (let alone 60 or 100). He's on pace for 32 with 16 stolen thus far. He's been avoiding CS/Pickoffs so that's good. Maybe with his more healthy wheels he'll resume swiping bases.
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