Reds July 2023 thread

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(07-29-2023, 09:56 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: He has been stinking for awhile now, so not defending that. I WILL say though, that before yesterday's game he still had a higher OPS than De La Cruz (granted none of his speed) and still has a higher OPS than India and Stephenson. 

I don't think he's "pulling the team down" or in a place where he should only play 1-2 times a week. He's still 5th on the team in HRs despite only 117 plate appearances (he still has 32 less PA for the Reds this year than Jose Barrero), he has just had an absolutely dreadful .183 BABIP which indicates a lot of bad luck when you have a 90.6 exit velocity, bad luck that can happen when you're dealing with a small sample size. 90.6 is the highest exit velocity at least of the starting 9 on the Reds (only 0.1 faster than DLC, and likely will be passed up, but currently still faster, lol).

His K% is higher than you'd want, but his BB% is still over 10 and he's still hitting the ball hard... 
-His 2nd highest exit velocity of the statcast era 
-His 2nd highest hard hit % of the statcast era
-His 2nd highest barrel % of the statcast era
-The lowest soft hit % in his career

He hasn't been good, but he hasn't been so bad that you can replace him with just anyone and get better results, and there's a lot of indications that he will statistically rebound from some bad luck. Continuing to hit the ball hard eventually leads to good things. Not to prime Votto numbers, those days are long gone, but to a solid contributor, sure. Just needs to refind his oppo swing and let more of those balls fall in.



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I do find it interesting that as soon as Votto dips below a league average bat (he's 3% below average right now), Kevin is suddenly an active poster in here again. Lol

Just keep hitting the ball hard and eventually it will find holes and good things will happen. A .183 BABIP while hitting the ball hard is just unsustainably bad luck.

Since this post... 4 for his last 7, 2 singles, 1 double, 1 HR (got a second HR robbed), 4 RBI. OPS went from .752 to .811