Geovany Sotos swing

[Little Slide Rooter]

Nothing against Geo, as Im pretty sure he will be the best catcher in the game for years to come, but is it me, or has he been swinging to the fences at every pitch lately? Granted, he would have had 2, maybe 3 HRs in most parks last night, but pitchers seem to be picking up on this, leading to his strikeout rate.

 

I know Gerald Perry has bigger fish to fry, but I think he needs to get Geo back into a doubles machine, and when he sees that perfect meatball, let er rip.

[Jon]

If you believe Quade (via Bob Brenly), a lot of Soto's success is from swinging harder the past year and a half.

 

In most situations, I don't see anything wrong with it. When he's ahead in the count and let's it rip, it's a pretty good gamble. He's shown he can crush them when he connects. He has also show recently that he can focus more on making contact with two strikes, such as those sac flies to right last week.

 

Let him hit HRs and strike out a little more on pitches in the zone. He's doing just fine. Besides, his K%, at 27.2%, isn't up all that much. It was 25.9% last year in the majors and 24.4% at AAA. While it was closer to 20% in 2006, his walk rate has actually increased since then and so has his productivity (by a lot).

[UMFan83]

I just want him to start walking once in awhile again.

[Jon]

He had a decent walk rate at the start of his slump, but the last few weeks have been rough. He's only hitting .221/.303/.430 since May 6th. Since the beginning of the last home stand, he's hitting .214/.226/.429. Certainly not pretty, but he'll be fine.

[Little Slide Rooter]

If you believe Quade (via Bob Brenly), a lot of Soto's success is from swinging harder the past year and a half.

 

In most situations, I don't see anything wrong with it. When he's ahead in the count and let's it rip, it's a pretty good gamble. He's shown he can crush them when he connects. He has also show recently that he can focus more on making contact with two strikes, such as those sac flies to right last week.

 

Let him hit HRs and strike out a little more on pitches in the zone. He's doing just fine. Besides, his K%, at 27.2%, isn't up all that much. It was 25.9% last year in the majors and 24.4% at AAA. While it was closer to 20% in 2006, his walk rate has actually increased since then and so has his productivity (by a lot).

 

I agree swing hard, but not every pitch in the sequence. Hes been looking like bad Soriano at the plate lately.

[mul21]

If you believe Quade (via Bob Brenly), a lot of Soto's success is from swinging harder the past year and a half.

 

In most situations, I don't see anything wrong with it. When he's ahead in the count and let's it rip, it's a pretty good gamble. He's shown he can crush them when he connects. He has also show recently that he can focus more on making contact with two strikes, such as those sac flies to right last week.

 

Let him hit HRs and strike out a little more on pitches in the zone. He's doing just fine. Besides, his K%, at 27.2%, isn't up all that much. It was 25.9% last year in the majors and 24.4% at AAA. While it was closer to 20% in 2006, his walk rate has actually increased since then and so has his productivity (by a lot).

 

I agree swing hard, but not every pitch in the sequence. Hes been looking like bad Soriano at the plate lately.

 

He's also been robbed of 2-3 HRs the last 2 days by the giant park that is Petco.

[BigbadB]

I don't remember seeing him play on Monday.

[jersey cubs fan]

If you believe Quade (via Bob Brenly), a lot of Soto's success is from swinging harder the past year and a half.

 

In most situations, I don't see anything wrong with it. When he's ahead in the count and let's it rip, it's a pretty good gamble. He's shown he can crush them when he connects. He has also show recently that he can focus more on making contact with two strikes, such as those sac flies to right last week.

 

Let him hit HRs and strike out a little more on pitches in the zone. He's doing just fine. Besides, his K%, at 27.2%, isn't up all that much. It was 25.9% last year in the majors and 24.4% at AAA. While it was closer to 20% in 2006, his walk rate has actually increased since then and so has his productivity (by a lot).

 

I agree swing hard, but not every pitch in the sequence. Hes been looking like bad Soriano at the plate lately.

 

Soto has looked nothing like bad Soriano at the plate lately.

[mul21]

I don't remember seeing him play on Monday.

 

Details. :oops:

[NCCubFan]

I just want him to start walking once in awhile again.

We don't need people, you know, clogging the bases. It's called hitting, not walking. Have you ever seen a top 10 walking?

[Soul]

He doesn't look like he's "swinging for the fences" every time to me. I don't know how anyone can say that for sure anyway; it's a subjective observation.

[Jehrico]

I just want him to start walking once in awhile again.

Agreed. His walk rate is up because of his early season performance, not because of the last couple of weeks. I'd like to see him maintain the approach of making the pitcher give him something good to hit.

[BCVM22]

It looks to this untrained observer like it's gotten around the league that Soto has some trouble with the breaking ball, particularly low breaking balls.

 

That's just me, though.

[Soul]

It looks to this untrained observer like it's gotten around the league that Soto has some trouble with the breaking ball, particularly low breaking balls.

 

That's just me, though.

 

Almost everyone has trouble with low breaking balls. Pitchers are always trying to keep that pitch down -- some are more effective than others.

 

Really, Soto was going to come back to earth a little bit. Nobody ever said he was a .350 hitter with a normal .420 OBP. But he clobbered another homer yesterday, he tied up a ballgame that we would have lost a couple days ago with a good sac fly.

 

He's slumping a bit, sure, but even in a slump he's more valuable to us that most catchers we've trotted out there.

 

I'm more worried about Lee right now. Just wanting him to come out of it, and soon.

[CuseCubFan69]

He may simply be a little tired. When is the Cubs next off day?

[Soul]

He may simply be a little tired. When is the Cubs next off day?

 

Monday.

[Abe Frohman]

Geo swings hard, and last night he should have had 2 home runs.

 

Like Geo said - catching first and the hitting is a nice surprise. He is a hell of a catcher who happens to be one of the best bats on the team. I don't change a thing.

[Post Count Padder]

He may have fallen off a bit in the past few weeks, but his overall numbers are still solid. I'm not worried.

[CuseCubFan69]

He may simply be a little tired. When is the Cubs next off day?

 

Monday.

 

Thanks Soul. Now sit him Sunday as well and I'll bet he comes back refreshed until the All Star break.

[Sammy Sofa]

I'm more worried about Lee right now. Just wanting him to come out of it, and soon.

 

With Lee and Soto, I wonder if it's something along the lines of what Ichiro has always said, where he's talked about how he could hit more homers but the rest of his offense would suffer. To me, I agree that it looks like Soto and Lee have been unleashing the big swing more often than not over the last few weeks...that's not saying that it's definitely the case, because my observation can easily be completely wrong...but I wonder if something like that is going on, because they both seem to still be hitting homers or near homers at a decent clip despite their other numbers dropping.

[jersey cubs fan]

I'm more worried about Lee right now. Just wanting him to come out of it, and soon.

 

With Lee and Soto, I wonder if it's something along the lines of what Ichiro has always said, where he's talked about how he could hit more homers but the rest of his offense would suffer. To me, I agree that it looks like Soto and Lee have been unleashing the big swing more often than not over the last few weeks...that's not saying that it's definitely the case, because my observation can easily be completely wrong...but I wonder if something like that is going on, because they both seem to still be hitting homers or near homers at a decent clip despite their other numbers dropping.

 

My impression has been Lee has been plagued by a load of weak ground balls, not a swing for the fence recklessness.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Derrek Lees on pace to be Derrek Lee. If you look at Lees career for the most part, hes on pace to have an average D-Lee season. He raised the bar for himself in his monster 2005, putting up Pujols numbers, and people expected more. When we traded the great Hee Sop Choi for him, we were expecting a .280/.375/.490 30 HR guy whose one of, if not the best defensive 1st baseman in the game. Thats who he is.

[Jon]

My impression has been Lee has been plagued by a load of weak ground balls, not a swing for the fence recklessness.

I don't know if you can break it down within a season, but here's his season stats:

 

2008 - 17.7% LD%, 48.8% GB%

2007 - 20.6% LD%, 41.2% GB%

2006 - 20.3% LD%, 41.3% GB%

2005 - 22.0% LD%, 38.6% GB%

 

His 2006 and 2007 seasons were remarkably consistent. He's flatout struggling in this regard so far this season, although I'm sure his April rates would look a lot different.

[CuseCubFan69]

My impression has been Lee has been plagued by a load of weak ground balls, not a swing for the fence recklessness.

I don't know if you can break it down within a season, but here's his season stats:

 

2008 - 17.7% LD%, 48.8% GB%

2007 - 20.6% LD%, 41.2% GB%

2006 - 20.3% LD%, 41.3% GB%

2005 - 22.0% LD%, 38.6% GB%

 

His 2006 and 2007 seasons were remarkably consistent. He's flatout struggling in this regard so far this season, although I'm sure his April rates would look a lot different.

 

Jon...what's considered a LD/ground ball/Flyball?

[David]

My impression has been Lee has been plagued by a load of weak ground balls, not a swing for the fence recklessness.

I don't know if you can break it down within a season, but here's his season stats:

 

2008 - 17.7% LD%, 48.8% GB%

2007 - 20.6% LD%, 41.2% GB%

2006 - 20.3% LD%, 41.3% GB%

2005 - 22.0% LD%, 38.6% GB%

 

His 2006 and 2007 seasons were remarkably consistent. He's flatout struggling in this regard so far this season, although I'm sure his April rates would look a lot different.

 

Jon...what's considered a LD/ground ball/Flyball?

 

Are you asking what a good ratio is? Or how those percentages are actually tallied and determined?