Annoyed with Ramirez?

[questionmarkgrace]

Am I the only one who keeps remembering the spring training reports of Ramirez sitting out for weeks at a time because of some phantom injury; while also claiming that he'll have no problem hitting?

 

Well we're two and half weeks into the season and big surprise he's still playing like its spring training.

[inari]

I bet his struggles have literally nothing to do with it and you're just trying to validate your preexisting belief that he's lazy.

[CubbieBum]

Well I love ARam but his play has been very frustrating. He is trying to swing for the fences in almost every at bat which is why he has stuck out swinging so many times. Swing for hits and the HR's will come and not the other way around.

[Careless]

I bet his struggles have literally nothing to do with it and you're just trying to validate your preexisting belief that he's lazy.

So are you saying that he was injured then and just sucks now, or sucked then and lied about an injury to cover up fundamental suckiness that explains why he sucks now?

[cubsfan5150]

Only thing that I'm worried about is the high amount of K's. He usually puts the ball in play.

[jersey cubs fan]

He's been the Cubs best hitter for the better part of a decade. He's gone through several stretches of very little production, but in the end his numbers are always there. I'm disappointed in the results so far, but it's completely stupid to be annoyed at Ramirez, not to mention suggesting he was sitting out with a phantom injury to avoid work.

[YearofDaCubs]

I remember ARam usually being a slow starter in April. I'm really not worried about him.

[Sammy Sofa]

He's had Aprils where he's started slow, so this is frustrating but not really all that surprising. I don't see why it's necessary to accuse him of a "phantom injury." Why is it so unlikely that he actually was injured (especially since he has a relatively extensive injury history), and as such missed a lot of spring training and is off to a slow start at least partly because of that?

[UMFan83]

I heard ARam got in the way of one of his cockfighting participants just before spring training and it was kept hush hush so the media wouldn't pick up on it.

 

That and he's just so damn lazy.

[Careless]

I remember ARam usually being a slow starter in April. I'm really not worried about him.

April OPS 2007-2009: .964. Over .920 all three years. Years below .800 OPS in April as a Cub: 1. Lots of strikeouts and an 8% LD% are not good things.

[Guest]

Yeah, worried or concerned describes my feelings more than annoyed.

[Old Style]

I'm frustrated as hell right now, but I still love Aramis. He is going to break out of this in a big way. I just hope it is soon.

[Sammy Sofa]

Yeah, worried or concerned describes my feelings more than annoyed.

 

True. It would be one thing if it seemed like his timing was off, but he's basically just flailing at everything thrown his way.

[CubbieBum]

Yeah, worried or concerned describes my feelings more than annoyed.

 

True. It would be one thing if it seemed like his timing was off, but he's basically just flailing at everything thrown his way.

 

I would agree I am more concerned than anything but his approach is off which sometimes takes awhile for people to change. Like I said earlier he is swinging for a HR every time and allowing his swing to miss a lot because he isn't controlling where the bat ends up very well. I think he may benefit a lot from being given 2 games off and have him watch tape of his AB's this season. My guess is BP doesn't help much because he can actually get good contact against the meatballs thrown in BP.

[jersey cubs fan]

Yeah, worried or concerned describes my feelings more than annoyed.

 

True. It would be one thing if it seemed like his timing was off, but he's basically just flailing at everything thrown his way.

 

I would agree I am more concerned than anything but his approach is off which sometimes takes awhile for people to change. Like I said earlier he is swinging for a HR every time and allowing his swing to miss a lot because he isn't controlling where the bat ends up very well. I think he may benefit a lot from being given 2 games off and have him watch tape of his AB's this season. My guess is BP doesn't help much because he can actually get good contact against the meatballs thrown in BP.

 

I don't know what it means to say he's swinging for a HR. Aramis always swings the bat really hard, whether he's lining balls off the wall, hitting HR or popping out to shallow right center.

[chuckywang]

Ramirez has proven himself year after year to be one of the best hitters in the league. He will come around.

[Sammy Sofa]

Yeah, "trying for a home run" isn't a problem since that's inherent to his approach as a hitter. When he's on he's still just up there trying to clobber everything.

[CubbieBum]

Yeah, worried or concerned describes my feelings more than annoyed.

 

True. It would be one thing if it seemed like his timing was off, but he's basically just flailing at everything thrown his way.

 

I would agree I am more concerned than anything but his approach is off which sometimes takes awhile for people to change. Like I said earlier he is swinging for a HR every time and allowing his swing to miss a lot because he isn't controlling where the bat ends up very well. I think he may benefit a lot from being given 2 games off and have him watch tape of his AB's this season. My guess is BP doesn't help much because he can actually get good contact against the meatballs thrown in BP.

 

I don't know what it means to say he's swinging for a HR. Aramis always swings the bat really hard, whether he's lining balls off the wall, hitting HR or popping out to shallow right center.

 

Have you watched the games? Honestly curious because it's pretty easy to see that is what he is doing. Swinging hard is one thing. Swing so hard that you lose your balance half the time is another. I have also noticed a lot of swings are rising a lo at the end indicating he is trying to golf it.

 

Guys like Andruw Jones have swings like that. It's an all or nothing swing that leads to a lot of K's and a low contact rate. I have every bit of confidence that Aram will shortly adjust and be back to his normal self but right now his swing is off.

[Guest]

Ramirez has always swung that hard, he's just always made contact more often so he didn't swing out of his shoes so often that you remember it.

 

 

"Swinging for the fences" is one of my big pet peeves. You don't change your swing to hit a home run, you don't swing harder or try to elevate the ball. Home runs come as a result of perfect contact, the result of trying to hit a hard line drive, which is what everyone should be trying to do anyway. If you think someone is struggling or not succeeding because they are trying to hit home runs, you're wrong. 150%, unequivocally, no doubt in anyone's mind wrong.

[jersey cubs fan]

Have you watched the games? Honestly curious because it's pretty easy to see that is what he is doing.

 

I was at last nights and have watched maybe 4-5 others. And what you are claiming to see is just due to seeing the results. Ramirez always swings like that.

[CubbieBum]

Ramirez has always swung that hard, he's just always made contact more often so he didn't swing out of his shoes so often that you remember it.

 

 

"Swinging for the fences" is one of my big pet peeves. You don't change your swing to hit a home run, you don't swing harder or try to elevate the ball. Home runs come as a result of perfect contact, the result of trying to hit a hard line drive, which is what everyone should be trying to do anyway. If you think someone is struggling or not succeeding because they are trying to hit home runs, you're wrong. 150%, unequivocally, no doubt in anyone's mind wrong.

 

Maybe I just haven't noticed it before because he gets contact. That could be why I'm seeing it that way.

 

That said people most certainly can change their swings to hit more HR's. That is not to say everyone will change when they want to hit a HR or even that most do but plenty of people have changed their swings for more HR's. Jones made a switch in his swing that lead to the 50+ HR season. Vlad used to change his swing constantly depending on where the ball was located. Heck I even remember DLee in 2005 saying one of the coaches made an suggestion that he took and that has allowed him to hit more HR's because he is able to get the ball more often to LF than left-center.

[SpongeWorthy]

The fact that Ramirez can swing hard coming off a shoulder injury is why I'm not too worried. I figured we'd see a drop off in bat speed but it doesn't seem to be the case. If he's getting bad mechanically to compensate then that would be bad but at least the explosiveness is still there.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

You don't change your swing to hit a home run, you don't swing harder or try to elevate the ball.

Incorrect. Not all home runs are the result of adjusting or swinging harder, but they often are.

[XZero771679666304]

My perception is that Aramis is simply swinging at pitches he doesn't usually swing at. He's normally pretty selective, but I have seen him swing at more crap in the past couple weeks than he usually does in a half a season. Why? I have no clue.

[Sammy Sofa]

My perception is that Aramis is simply swinging at pitches he doesn't usually swing at. He's normally pretty selective, but I have seen him swing at more crap in the past couple weeks than he usually does in a half a season. Why? I have no clue.

 

Agreed, this is the part I'm noticing. He's striking out swinging at a ridiculous rate (for him) and not really taking anything.