Manny's extreme open stance is killing the O's

[Sessh]

2016

July .204/.288/.337/.625
August .312/.320/.616/.936
September .241/.282/.389/.671

2017

April .224/.343/.424/.767
May .200/.248/.409/.657

I posted this in the game thread, but here it is again. Manny has been well below average for four of the last five regular season months. He has been hitting well under .250 with OBP's under .300 three times, slugging under .400 twice and under .430 in all four months. On top of that, his OPS is under .700 in three of those months. August of last year was the only good month. Maybe the league has figured him out, but the fact is he has been a below average offensive player overall since July of last year. The numbers don't lie.

[Frobby]

13 minutes ago, Sessh said:

2016

July .204/.288/.337/.625
August .312/.320/.616/.936
September .241/.282/.389/.671

2017

April .224/.343/.424/.767
May .200/.248/.409/.657

I posted this in the game thread, but here it is again. Manny has been well below average for four of the last five regular season months. He has been hitting well under .250 with OBP's under .300 three times, slugging under .400 twice and under .430 in all four months. On top of that, his OPS is under .700 in three of those months. August of last year was the only good month. Maybe the league has figured him out, but the fact is he has been a below average offensive player overall since July of last year. The numbers don't lie.

First of all, I wouldn't say his .767 in April was below average.   Second, defense is a big part of the equation with Manny.   

Third, I'm very concerned about his hitting but I've seen things like this before.    Adam Jones had a .658 OPS for the final four months of 2009, then a .656 OPS the first two months of 2010, and suddenly the sky was falling and there was mass hysteria here because his "slump" had lasted a full year and clearly the pitchers had figured him out, plus he blew bubbles while he played so clearly he had an attitude problem.    Then he put up an .827 OPS the rest of 2010 and everybody shut up.     Obviously I don't know what Manny will do the rest of this year, but it's not exactly unprecedented for a guy to finish one year cold, start the next year cold, and then turn it around.    Manny is capable of making up a lot of ground in a hurry.   

[Yossarian]

Manny Mendoza's problems run deeper than just an open stance.

[Frobby]

Another way to look at Manny's season so far:

1st 9 games: .566 OPS

Games 10-30: .936 OPS (overall .830 at this point)

Games 31-49: .530 OPS (overall .708 at this point)

When you look at it this way, the hole clearly isn't so deep that Manny can't dig out of it.    But right now he just looks completely lost, maybe the most lost I've ever seen him.   

[webbrick2010]

10 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Another way to look at Manny's season so far:

1st 9 games: .566 OPS

Games 10-30: .936 OPS (overall .830 at this point)

Games 31-49: .530 OPS (overall .708 at this point)

When you look at it this way, the hole clearly isn't so deep that Manny can't dig out of it.    But right now he just looks completely lost, maybe the most lost I've ever seen him.   

Dig all he want his offensive numbers will be way down season over season and that is not good.

 

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, webbrick2010 said:

Dig all he want his offensive numbers will be way down season over season and that is not good.

 

That's not necessarily the case.    He'd need about a .950 OPS the rest of the year.   Obviously, not an easy thing to do, but he did it for three consecutive months last year and had another month at .936.     

And in terms of HR/RBI production, he easily could make up the lost ground.   

[Going Underground]

Manny will break out against the Red Sox. Incentive and payback. Orioles will win at least three of the games.

[Tony-OH]

39 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Another way to look at Manny's season so far:

1st 9 games: .566 OPS

Games 10-30: .936 OPS (overall .830 at this point)

Games 31-49: .530 OPS (overall .708 at this point)

When you look at it this way, the hole clearly isn't so deep that Manny can't dig out of it.    But right now he just looks completely lost, maybe the most lost I've ever seen him.   

Really? What I see out of this was a guy that was hot for about three weeks and has stunk the rest of the season. He's certainly capable of much better is not a sub .600 hitter, but as i posted earlier, he hasn't hit a high level for a sustained amount of time since last July.

[Frobby]

Just now, Tony-OH said:

Really? What I see out of this was a guy that was hot for about three weeks and has stunk the rest of the season. He's certainly capable of much better is not a sub .600 hitter, but as i posted earlier, he hasn't hit a high level for a sustained amount of time since last July.

Well, sometimes things change.    We know he is capable of doing it, because he's done it before.   That doesn't mean it will happen, and I'm not making any predictions, just talking about what's realistically possible.   

[ORIOLE33]

But what if Pitchers really have figured him out? I mean, he hasn't hit in a very long time. Much too long to be a slump.

[Frobby]

7 minutes ago, ORIOLE33 said:

But what if Pitchers really have figured him out? I mean, he hasn't hit in a very long time. Much too long to be a slump.

See my post about Jones in 2009-10.     Jones figured it out, so no reason to think Manny can't.    But that doesn't mean he will.   

[webbrick2010]

36 minutes ago, Frobby said:

See my post about Jones in 2009-10.     Jones figured it out, so no reason to think Manny can't.    But that doesn't mean he will.   

Gee... I was kind of hoping that Manny was a way better hitter than Jones ever was.... seeing the consensus just a couple months ago was to hurry up and give him 300 million dollars. Jones with a career OPS+ of 107 is just a little above average

[Emory Eagle]

It's not all that relevant how his stance starts out before the pitch is thrown, but if he's finishing open (i.e. "stepping in the bucket") then that might be an issue.  It's all about how the swing looks at the point of contact.  

In any case, the O's have a lot of bigger problems than batting stances at the moment.

[Frobby]

34 minutes ago, webbrick2010 said:

Gee... I was kind of hoping that Manny was a way better hitter than Jones ever was.... seeing the consensus just a couple months ago was to hurry up and give him 300 million dollars. Jones with a career OPS+ of 107 is just a little above average

I'm not talking about Manny replicating Jones' numbers.    I'm talking about Manny reverting to his normal self and putting together a solid season by his standards, as Jones did in 2010.   That's still feasible, though not easy.  

[ORIOLE33]

To be hitting in the low 200's going into June, to get back up to respectability, he is going to have to go on a prolonged tear.