Elly needs to drop the switch hitting

[*bengalfan74*]

Vs. lefties, betting right-handed of course - avg. .188, 2 HR's, 10 RBI's, .541 OPS

Vs. RH - avg. .292, 10 HR's, 33 RBI's, .912 OPS

When your numbers are that far apart it's time to give it up. We got to find some ways to breathe life into this offense. Come on Tito, make ELLY stay batting LH

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

Been true his whole career thus far..
Career As LHB: .272 AVG/.349 OBP/.509 SLG/.857 OPS
Career As RHB: .206 AVG/.276 OBP/.315 SLG/.591 OPS

I've mentioned it a couple times. Being a switch hitter isn't a boon if you're terrible on one side.

[SunsetBengal]

(06-04-2025, 05:40 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Vs. lefties, betting right-handed of course - avg. .188, 2 HR's, 10 RBI's, .541 OPS

Vs. RH - avg. .292, 10 HR's, 33 RBI's, .912 OPS

When your numbers are that far apart it's time to give it up. We got to find some ways to breathe life into this offense. Come on Tito, make ELLY stay batting LH

Yeah, you're not outsmarting anyone to send a guy out there with a history of performing worse when batting RH. I wonder how his stats vs LH pitching when batting LH compare to when he bats RH vs LH pitching?

[*bengalfan74*]

(06-04-2025, 07:58 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Yeah, you're not outsmarting anyone to send a guy out there with a history of performing worse when batting RH. I wonder how his stats vs LH pitching when batting LH compare to when he bats RH vs LH pitching?

Good question

And I'm sure there would be a learning curve facing lefties batting LH. But at some point, he has to give up batting righty if he sucks at it.

[SunsetBengal]

(06-04-2025, 08:38 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Good question

And I'm sure there would be a learning curve facing lefties batting LH. But at some point, he has to give up batting righty if he sucks at it.

Actually, it should feel natural to him seeing the ball coming from the same side of the plate, right?

[*ochocincos*]

Elly feels like he may be on the Billy Hamilton track, but with more power if he doesn't start getting more consistent hitting.

Hamilton with Reds:
.245 BA
.298 OBP
.333 SLG
162-Game Average SBs - 56

EDLC:
.251 BA
.327 OBP
.448 SLG
162-Game Average SBs - 61

EDLC is better than BH in every category, but his OBP and especially BA are not too far off BH.
The SLG is a big difference maker though.

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

The stats are not impressive at all, and I see your points but if you think that he has trouble hitting a curveball as a switch hitter, welcome to a whole new level of strikeouts if he goes lefty vs lefty. He won't be making the change in Chattanooga, it will be against MLB pitchers.

I think that we're all kinda stuck-ish. Fans, coaches and Elly.

[*bengalfan74*]

(06-05-2025, 01:42 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Elly feels like he may be on the Billy Hamilton track, but with more power if he doesn't start getting more consistent hitting.

Hamilton with Reds:
.245 BA
.298 OBP
.333 SLG
162-Game Average SBs - 56

EDLC:
.251 BA
.327 OBP
.448 SLG
162-Game Average SBs - 61

EDLC is better than BH in every category, but his OBP and especially BA are not too far off BH.
The SLG is a big difference maker though.

I've felt that same vibe myself. A year ago or so he seemed to be on track to be a total Super Star. Now I'm not so sure? Granted he's still very young but he swings at pitches sometimes that are just baffling? Damn near eye high to him, which is very high lol. A foot and a half outside, they were never even close to the strike zone coming out of the pitchers hand all the way to the plate!!

He's like in the top 6 or something in MLB in strike outs. I'm just thinking that perhaps if he just stays on one side it will help him being more consistent at some point down the road.

[TecmoBengals]

(06-05-2025, 01:42 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Elly feels like he may be on the Billy Hamilton track, but with more power if he doesn't start getting more consistent hitting.

I get your point, but he has enough pop in his bat compared to Hamilton that he'll stick around in the big leagues longer if he stays on the same track of inconsistent hitting.

[*ochocincos*]

(06-11-2025, 09:12 AM)TecmoBengals Wrote: I get your point, but he has enough pop in his bat compared to Hamilton that he'll stick around in the big leagues longer if he stays on the same track of inconsistent hitting.

Staying around the bigs wasn't a problem for BH.
He played 11 years in the majors, although he really didn't do much after 2019.

As long as EDLC can stay at .250+ BA to go along with that pop and speed, he'll stick around for a long time.
But I remember there being such a hype around BH that he was going to be that missing piece to get the 2010's Reds over the hump, getting on base and scoring runs out the wazoo with his speed. He just couldn't get on base enough.
But for EDLC, I think there's even more of the hype because not only can he run fast like BH, but he's more.
There has been an expectation after last year that he would blossom into the next franchise player the team would build around, being the next equivalent of Joey Votto.
Obviously, EDLC is not going to be anywhere close to the career .294 BA or .409 OBP that Votto had, but many are ok with him being down closer to .250-.270 BA and around .350 OBP if he can keep stealing and flying around the bases.

[TecmoBengals]

(06-11-2025, 09:44 AM)ochocincos Wrote: Staying around the bigs wasn't a problem for BH.
He played 11 years in the majors, although he really didn't do much after 2019.

Fair point. I do think Elly will start and play in more games though because his talent is perceived differently than Hamilton's talent. Hamilton was viewed as a SB guy only with some defense. GMs see Elly as a five tool guy which will likely get him more opportunity on the field even if he mirrors Hamilton's lackluster hitting.

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(06-04-2025, 07:58 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Yeah, you're not outsmarting anyone to send a guy out there with a history of performing worse when batting RH. I wonder how his stats vs LH pitching when batting LH compare to when he bats RH vs LH pitching?

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=delacel01&year=Career&t=b

Never has done it.

I'm not shitting on the guy, because he clearly has MLB talent and belongs in the majors, but he's not the superstar that you fans think he will be or like the promise he showed when he came up 2 years ago: he's deplorable in the field (a switch to 3B or 2B may help his bat too) and doesn't walk enough for how much he strikes out. Those two knocks against him will hamper him his entire career unless he fixes them.

Your K/BB ratio should be 2:1, but if you strike out under 100 times a year, it's not a big deal. 200+ strikeouts and 67 walks? That's Mark Reynolds territory (shudder).

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(06-11-2025, 09:44 AM)ochocincos Wrote: Staying around the bigs wasn't a problem for BH.
He played 11 years in the majors, although he really didn't do much after 2019.

As long as EDLC can stay at .250+ BA to go along with that pop and speed, he'll stick around for a long time.
But I remember there being such a hype around BH that he was going to be that missing piece to get the 2010's Reds over the hump, getting on base and scoring runs out the wazoo with his speed. He just couldn't get on base enough.
But for EDLC, I think there's even more of the hype because not only can he run fast like BH, but he's more.
There has been an expectation after last year that he would blossom into the next franchise player the team would build around, being the next equivalent of Joey Votto.
Obviously, EDLC is not going to be anywhere close to the career .294 BA or .409 OBP that Votto had, but many are ok with him being down closer to .250-.270 BA and around .350 OBP if he can keep stealing and flying around the bases.

It's probably best to go by service time for a guy that goes up-and-down between minors and majors like Hamilton did later. Being on a team for a week or two and then getting DFA'd isn't really the same as playing a year. 

Doesn't reduce your point at all as he still had 8 years and change of service time in the majors which is a heck of a full career, but Zack Cozart was in MLB for 9 years so it would seem like Hamilton lasted 2 more years if you just went like that, but Cozart also had the same 8 years and change of service time because he never became a DFA/AAAA type guy at the end of his career.

Crazy thing about Billy Hamilton was that he was so good defensively and on the bases that he really didn't even need to be a league average hitter. If he could have just been like 10-15% below league average with a bat, he would have been a perennial All-Star. Just a shame he couldn't even manage that and was more like 25-45% below average.

- - - - - - -

Weirdly enough, EDLC is barely being productive from a SB/CS angle this season. It's generally considered that you need 3 SB for every 1 CS to be providing positive value in attempting it. He was well above that last year at 4.2:1 despite leading in CS... this year he's at 3.3:1. Granted he also was picked off a ton last year and I think he's only been picked off 2 times this year, so that might be the cause of it as not all POs are CS so that could have changed some numbers on both years, but he's really close to not actually providing value on SB attempts (one more CS without a success and he's below the 3:1 threshold). 

Still obviously providing positive value on his ability to go 1st to 3rd or 2nd to home, though.

[Goalpost]

Number of Reds games so far...69. Elly has scored 50 runs and driven in 44. He's likely going to be over 100 in both.