Yet it is the offense that is the most concerning aspect of all of this. The starting outfield of Yoenis Cespedes, Michael Conforto, and Jay Bruce is hitting a collective .199 – that’s under the Mendoza line – with a total of six (6) home runs and 31 runs batted in. The only one being somewhat productive is Conforto who has an on base percentage of .387, due mainly to his 13 walks. Cespedes has a paltry OBP of .258 with a whopping league-leading 37 strikeouts, while Bruce is not much better with an OBP of .280.
And other than Asdrubal Cabrera, who is on fire and leading the league in hitting, there is no one else in the lineup, the starting lineup, that is hitting with any consistency. Todd Frazier is getting on base with a lot of walks, but he was brought in to supply some power, not accumulate bases on balls. The two best natural hitters on the team can’t even “break into” the starting lineup – Brandon Nimmo in the outfield and Wilmer Flores in the infield. Nimmo even had to do the undeserving Walk of Shame, heading down to Triple A Las Vegas when he was the leading hitter on the team. And Flores just seems to come up with more and more clutch hits more often than not.
The thing to note about both Nimmo and Flores is that they are in the minority as far as “putting the bat on the ball.” Neither strikes out that much. Both have a quick, short swing. Flores has a lot more power, but that seems to be more natural then Wilmer trying to constantly jack the ball out of the park.
In this day and age of lifting the ball rather than just trying to hit the ball hard on a line, you WILL see a lot more home runs, but you WILL also see a heck of lot more strikeouts. Whatever happened to “see the ball, hit the ball?” Whatever happened to “just trying to hit the ball up the middle?” Sure, the result of “lifting” the ball will result in more home run balls. But synonymous with “home run hitter” is “streaky hitter.” Anyone that has seen the big boppers knows that home runs come in bunches and that home run hitters are VERY notoriously streaky. So there is no consistency.
We are left to just sit back and wait. Wait for the team to get hot. Wait for the long ball to come. And if it doesn’t come, the word “long” will be in front of the word “season.”
