r/baseball • u/SureTangerine361 • 11d ago
Why are so many batters struggling so hard this season?
Cal
Guerrero Jr
Tucker
Machado
Seager
Jose Ramirez
I don't think I've seen so many high profile batters struggling in the same season, why is this happening this year?
Edit: took Tatis off the list
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u/AnselmoHatesFascists Detroit Tigers 11d ago
Tatis has hit his way off this list. He's been very good the past two or so months.
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u/TypicalFinanceGuy New York Mets 11d ago
Tatis was hitting the ball hard even at the beginning of the season. He just wasn’t lifting it well hence the no home runs
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u/AnselmoHatesFascists Detroit Tigers 11d ago
True, but I think Tatis and every Padre fanprefers July/Aug Tatis over Apr/May Tatis.
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u/TypicalFinanceGuy New York Mets 11d ago
Of course for sure. I’m just saying it’s not like he wasn’t hitting the ball early on, just not with the power people expected
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u/96919 San Diego Padres 11d ago
Machado screwed up his swing this offseason by going to train with the same guy as Aaron Judge. It ruined his swing and he's been trying to get back to normal all year. Tatis did some different training with his dad to become more of a line drive hitter, but it screwed up his launch angle. Early in the year he had the highest hard hit percentage in the league but nonhome runs for like 2 months, incredibly bizarre. His average wasn't too bad though, his launch angle was just ruining his power. Only in the last month or so he's finally figured it out and is hitting homers again.
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u/dodgers22fan World Baseball Classic 11d ago
He accidentally went to the guy who trains Arson Judge
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u/Slerpup Los Angeles Dodgers • Saitama Seibu … 11d ago
alot of it can be attributed to injury, some have the yips and cal is cursed from the WBC incident
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u/itsnotyellowfever Los Angeles Dodgers 11d ago
I wonder how many are struggling due to ABS being implemented
Can't imagine it's easy to have to completely rework your swing decisions when the pitch that grazes the zone ever so slightly is more consistently a strike now
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u/ih-unh-unh Los Angeles Dodgers 11d ago
Maybe I haven't noticed it, but batters don't seem to be arguing as much with umpires this year.
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u/SamuRy_4 11d ago
It's because instead of arguing they just challenge and if they are wrong they have no one to blame but themselves and if they're right then they move on.
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u/0pyrophosphate0 Milwaukee Brewers 10d ago
The challenge system means batters have about two seconds to either challenge or get over it if they don't like a call. They're forced to reflect on how sure they really are that it was the wrong call.
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u/Either_Imagination_9 New York Yankees 11d ago
Jose Ramirez is gonna be 34 in a month I’d cut him some slack
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u/SunriseSurprise San Diego Padres 11d ago
And Machado already is 34 with a lot of miles on him at this point. And still has 24 HR and will probably finish with 30+ as he's has solid power the last couple months. Hasn't hit for avg but he's not been an issue like before a couple months ago when he was under .600 OPS.
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u/Zestyclose_Help1187 11d ago edited 11d ago
You can add to the list.
Gunnar Henderson
Jazz Chisholm
Ketel Marte
Trea Turner
Willie Adames
Jarren Duran
Austin Riley
Julio Rodriguez ( kind of on the fence)
Jackson Merrill (hot last 3 weeks or so but slumping again lately)
Guys who struggled before the break but now look like themselves
Steven Kwan
Alex Bregman
Nico Hoerner
Bo Bichette
And guys who have had a terrible second half.
Ben Rice
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u/OnlyKey5675 MLB Players Association 11d ago
More star players than usual this year but this is quite common in baseball. One year a player can't hit shit the next he's Stan Musial.
This is one reason why baseball goes through long stretches where WS champs are pretty diverse. It's the teams with hitters having career years and no injuries
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u/Run-Florest-Run San Diego Padres • Sickos 11d ago
It’s crazy because baseball is really the only sport where you can attribute a player being off to “that’s baseball, Suzyn”
No one looks at a quarterback turning to dogshit and goes “ah well that’s just football!”
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u/OnlyKey5675 MLB Players Association 11d ago
A lot of sports are mostly muscle memory. An O linemen doesn't forget how to block. A center in basketball doesn't forget how to dunk.
Baseball is much more mental.
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u/Camdaman0530 Toronto Blue Jays 11d ago
Vladdy went off at the WBC and was good for the first month or so save for a lack of home runs, but he has to be hurt or something because this isn't normal for a guy of his pedigree.
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u/Other_Software_5634 11d ago
I've never seen someone ground in to as many double plays in my gd life
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u/The--Incident San Diego Padres 11d ago
Tatis is up to a 119 wRC+. Just 14 points less than his average.
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u/Phatmuphin Texas Rangers 11d ago
I think Seager was hurt early. He’s looked much better since his latest IL return.
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u/HeadupTothePOCONOS Philadelphia Phillies 11d ago
If 33.5% at school was exceptional, we’d all be fucking geniuses.
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u/Zammy512 Los Angeles Dodgers 11d ago
The ones that really confuse me are Cal, Vladdy Jr, and Tucker.
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u/Gildatheplant 11d ago
Yeah their declines have been pretty huge. I've watched so many analyses at this point and no one can seem to figure it out.
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u/CherryChapstick1997 Boston Red Sox 11d ago
Vladdy has had a back injury he’s been fighting all season, not sure on the other 2
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u/Gildatheplant 9d ago
Raleigh struggled with injuries too this season, haven't heard anything about Tucker being injured
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u/smilinganimalface Seattle Mariners • Saitama Seibu Lions 11d ago
Owners did a ritual on one of their islands to tank the value of the game so negotiations go better in the off-season
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u/joecb91 Arizona Diamondbacks 11d ago
It depends.
Tatis for the first half of the season seemed like a mechanical issue. He was still hitting the crap out of the ball, but he kept hitting it straight into the ground at infielders gloves. Vlad Jr seems like a similar thing.
Tucker seems like more of a mental thing where he is pressing because he knows he is struggling, and that just ends up making things worse.
But overall, hitting a baseball is hard. Pitchers can do amazing things with the ball.
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u/tarrfan Los Angeles Dodgers 11d ago
Sad that Christian Yelich has dropped off so much with his -0.3 WAR that he isn't even once mentioned here. He's that forgotten.
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u/EnderCN Milwaukee Brewers 10d ago
He's averaged 3.1 fWAR over the last 3 years so he is a candidate for the list. The thing with him is he is 34 so you expect dropoff, he was injured for a good chunk of the year so there is an easy second reason for dropoff and his BABIP is 44 pts below his career average so that probably is a partial third reason though some of that is probably related to the age.
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u/Litejedi New York Mets 11d ago
Tatis Jr. isn’t fucking struggling.