Red Sox Nation has spent much of this season focusing on two major issues: How bad/annoying/swing at the first pitch-y A.J Pierzynski is as well as whether or not Jackie Bradley, Jr, will ever hit enough to justify his other worldly defense in the daily lineup.
As AJP has been DFAed and, subsequently, released and JBJ has begun to hit (18 of his previous 48 at the time of this writing Monday evening during the game), the team and the tide has turned. The team has won seven of the last eight headed into Monday night’s game in Toronto, and look good to win that game as well. With the team winning, small leads no longer seem fleeting and whimsical. The 7.5 game lead that the Orioles have no longer seems utterly insurmountable. Any game now seems winnable. All that of that said, it is not all perfect in Boston.
This weekend the fascinating twitter account at @redsoxstats dropped this factoid on us:
JBJ is hitting .232 X is hitting .234 — Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) July 20, 2014
What? Is that right? Is this possible? Indeed, it is. May 2014, when Xander slash lined .327/.407/.490 seems like ages ago. And, while he has not been hitting well the last two months, there have been signs – like his home run in the game to open up the second half against the Royals – to give us hope. That May, or for that matter October 2013, are not simple fond memories, but indicative of the future. For all the preseason rankings that got us salivating for Xander’s hitting potential, it would be timely to take a look around MLB and see what his classmates are doing.
The following is a sampling of Baseball America’s Top 50 players who have played MLB ball this season with their slash line to this point in their major league career:
2. Xander Bogaerts: .235/.311/.354, 108 games played
3. Oscar Taveres: .190/.226/.266, 25 games played
10. Gregory Polanco: .246/.331/.324, 35 games played
18. George Springer:.231/.336/.468, 78 games played
25. Nick Castellanos:.266/.309/.396, 98 games played
29. Jose Abreu: .293/.342/.621, 85 games played (Can we agree that his situation as a Cuban professional makes him a bit of an outlier?)
36. Travis d’Arnaud: .216/.290/.322, 89 games played
42. Rougned Odor: .268/.305/.408, 56 games played
43. Billy Hamilton:.283/.318/.418, 106 games played
50. JBJ:.221/.302/.319, 125 games played
The point? Hitting Major League pitching is hard. The *best* OBP in that bunch of the most elite Major League ready prospects is .336. (Xander is getting on base 2.5% of his plate appearances less often than that.) There are a lot of adjustments to make, especially as the league begins to make adjustments to your hitting approach. It can be aggravating to watch this long stretch where Xander seems to be made foolish night in and night out. But when one broadens their search to the rest of Major League Baseball, you see that he is in good company. He is not alone. All of the major prospects who have seen time this year have taken their lumps. Sometimes it is so easy to focus with laser intensity on ones own team, that perspective and context is lost.
The fact of the matter is that we are living in a pitching dominating era. Xander is still just 21 years old. He is still learning, still making adjustments. Plus, the industry still believes in his future. Fangraphs, in fact, just recently named him the 23rd most valuable trade asset in all of Major League Baseball. While nothing is promised in the cruel game of baseball, the future is still promising. We are simply watching a player who is the same age as the college juniors just selected in the recent Rule 4 draft work on his game in the bright lights of the bigs. If that isn’t enough to revive and sustain your hope, hopefully comparing his struggles to those of his peers will remind you that he is not alone.
Are the days coming where Xander slapping five with the third base coach is again the norm? Credit SittingStill
Keep backing him. It won’t be long until he is the player whose name you are singing. Three hits against Toronto on Monday night (through 6) suggests the adjustments are working and that time is coming.