Albert Pujols (1B-LAA)
After an injury plagued 2013 season that saw him only play in 99 games, many thought this year would be a major rebound for Pujols. It has been anything but. He is batting only .277 and he is well behind his mediocre 2012 season (for him) in every category. While he has shown very good plate discipline in striking out only 9.4% of the time his walks are down too to an all time low of 7.3%. For a player who averaged an 8.5 WAR over 7 seasons he will be lucky if he touches a 3.0 WAR this season. He is making less contact on pitches outside the zone which accounts for some of the diminished results. The velocity off his bat and his average true distance on HR's are down significantly from last season which could be an indicator of some loss in skill. As one of the great players of this generation I would love to see him turn it on and finish the season with a flourish. But judging from his production in a 2nd half, that has seen him hit only 7 HR in 231 PA's, I would not bet on it.
Nelson Cruz (OF-Balt)
Nelson Cruz got off to an amazing start to the season putting to rest the concerns about his suspension in 2013. But like a number of other players on the Baltimore team it has been a tale of two season for Cruz. Leading up to the All-Star Break, Cruz had 28 HR and 74 RBI's while batting a robust .287. Since that time he only 6 HR and 14 RBI's and is hitting a putrid .174. His fly ball rate is actually higher in the 2nd half at a 51% pace but his HR/FB% has dropped in half. Cruz's plate discipline has remained fairly steady throughout but his LD% has gone into the tank at 10.6%. Cruz is just not squaring up on the ball like he did in April and May when he pounded 20 HR's. His 34 HR's at this point in the season are a career high, and he will break 100 RBI's for the first time in his career, but a season filled with first half magic has clearly faded away.
Leonys Martin (OF-Texas)
Leonys Martin had a very productive game with three hits, a HR, and 3 RBI's batting leadoff today. I can't help but believe that the Rangers are not very happy with his production this season. While he is striking out more than 20% of the time, Martin has only managed 6 HR in 467 plate appearance. His ISO at .091 is the lowest of his career. It is not that he is a bad player but at 26 years old he has shown no improvement in his hitting performance over last year. In addition, his base stealing efficiency has not been stellar being thrown out 10 times in 32 attempts after stealing a promising 36 last season. He would appear to profile as a good leadoff hitter with a reasonable .323 OBP but he will have to do more to gain the team's confidence that he can be a steady leadoff hitter in the future.
Ian Kinsler (2B Detroit)
Ian Kinsler is in the midst of a very difficult stretch of hitting. Since July 1st, he is batting .240 with only 2 HR in 229 PA's. The most troubling stat is his 2.6% walk rate which is a dramatic drop off from his career 9% average. He is clearly swinging at more pitches outside of the zone this season since his 31.6% 0-Swing rate is 8 points higher than last season. This swoon has not helped his overall numbers which surprisingly are still good with a .279 average, 12 HR, 81 runs, 69 RBI's and 14 steals. Let's hope that he is able to break out of the doldrums and end the year strong but the same thing happened to him last season when he managed only 5 HR's over the last 2 months of the season. Perhaps it was the Texas heat that drained him, but now playing in Detroit his owners have to hope for a better result.
Rougned Odor (2B-Texas)
Rougned Odor hit a grand slam today to lead the Rangers to victory. Odor is batting .248 with 6 HR, 26 runs, and 32 RBI in 313 PA's which is not a bad performance considering that he bats at the bottom of the order. We have not seen his speed show up yet with only 2 on the season, but he has proved to be a good contact hitter with an 83.5% rate for his first season in MLB. His biggest weakness so far has been his inability to take a walk as he has a 3.5% rate and has walked only 11 times all season. His good contact rate has kept his K rate to a very manageable 17.9%. At only 20 years old, and considering he is holding his own in the Majors without the benefit of any seasoning in Triple A, I would say that the Rangers have a very promising ballplayer on their hands.
@stevietheshu
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