Lawrie's lack of power

Kapono · Post #1 » by **Kapono** » Sun May 27, 2012 5:08 pm

What is up with Lawrie's lack of power so far? Last year he was an extra base machines, seems like almost every 2nd hit was a 2B, 3B or HR. This year its a single or nothing.

Is it cause pitchers are adjusting to him like they do with all young players?
Is it cause Lawrie hasn't been effectively working counts?
Is it cause he's trying to hard?

etc

jrsmith · Post #2 » by **jrsmith** » Sun May 27, 2012 5:16 pm

I think he still hasn't adjusted to hitting/recognizing breaking balls and it's messing up his entire approach. He should put it together but it might take him the full season.

JoeyBats · Post #3 » by **JoeyBats** » Sun May 27, 2012 5:46 pm

He's young and hitting for average can't complain too much. He'll develop power when he gets older and stronger.

flatjacket1 · Post #4 » by **flatjacket1** » Sun May 27, 2012 6:23 pm

I always viewed him as a 20-25 HR hitter and I think that is his true talent. Right now hes getting behind in a lot of counts, and this causes him to go to a defensive swing (which is smart).

Kapono · Post #5 » by **Kapono** » Sun May 27, 2012 7:19 pm

flatjacket1 wrote:I always viewed him as a 20-25 HR hitter and I think that is his true talent. Right now hes getting behind in a lot of counts, and this causes him to go to a defensive swing (which is smart).

Yes I always viewed him as a 20-25 HR hitter too. But a guy who can get 30+ doubles and 10+ triples every year due to his great speed

JoeyBats · Post #6 » by **JoeyBats** » Sun May 27, 2012 7:33 pm

Looks like he saw this post.

Hamyltowne · Post #7 » by **Hamyltowne** » Sun May 27, 2012 7:47 pm

He leads the majors in dWAR and is on pace for an historic defensive season.

When his offense rolls around, he''ll be considered one of the best all-around players in the game.

Graham's Cracker · Post #8 » by **Graham's Cracker** » Sun May 27, 2012 8:24 pm

He wasted it on Bill Miller's hip

Randle McMurphy · Post #9 » by **Randle McMurphy** » Sun May 27, 2012 9:18 pm

flatjacket1 wrote:I always viewed him as a 20-25 HR hitter and I think that is his true talent. Right now hes getting behind in a lot of counts, and this causes him to go to a defensive swing (which is smart).

Exactly. He's swinging way too much at balls and resorting to slapping hits once he falls behind in the count (which is pretty much every time). Once he adjusts to the breaking balls out of the zone, I think the power will come.

dballislife · Post #10 » by **dballislife** » Mon May 28, 2012 3:50 am

he makes contact, hits for avg and gets on base, runs great, should really see him at 1-2 spots imo

Post #11 » by **Schad** » Mon May 28, 2012 4:17 am

Randle McMurphy wrote:
flatjacket1 wrote:I always viewed him as a 20-25 HR hitter and I think that is his true talent. Right now hes getting behind in a lot of counts, and this causes him to go to a defensive swing (which is smart).

Exactly. He's swinging way too much at balls and resorting to slapping hits once he falls behind in the count (which is pretty much every time). Once he adjusts to the breaking balls out of the zone, I think the power will come.

Yup. Pitch recognition is, as it tends to be with young players, the big issue...it's to Lawrie's credit that he manages to get bat to ball with such frequency, given that he's often swinging at garbage, but he'll need to tighten up his approach significantly to reach his potential.

I know that the Jays are not at all fond of taking pitches, but it might not be a bad idea to have Lawrie going up there with the intent of taking the first pitch unless it's an absolutely perfect fastball to crush. Might result in him going 0-1 without a fight for a week, but he's already ending up 0-1...at least that way, there's some incentive for pitchers to groove fastballs again rather than junking first-pitch breaking balls, which might result in him being able to switch gears and pick some of them off.

Hamyltowne · Post #12 » by **Hamyltowne** » Mon May 28, 2012 6:12 am

His WAR is second-best in the American League. It's because of his defense. I started a thread on this.

dballislife · Post #13 » by **dballislife** » Mon May 28, 2012 7:25 am

i think lawrie should be given a bigger role on offense, we all know he can hit and wreck havoc on the bases, we need a guy like that before jose and ee, guys pitchers hate on base and make more mistakes

flatjacket1 · Post #14 » by **flatjacket1** » Mon May 28, 2012 8:46 pm

dballislife wrote:i think lawrie should be given a bigger role on offense, we all know he can hit and wreck havoc on the bases, we need a guy like that before jose and ee, guys pitchers hate on base and make more mistakes

Stealing bases at less than an 80% clip hurts your team, and there are some statistics out that try and disprove that a base stealer actually affects the pitcher enough to create these "mistakes".

Your fastest runners are not always your best base stealers. Gose for instance is not the fastest man in the minors by any stretch, but still managed 20 SB so far this season based on his crazy instincts (and has "80 speed" (which refers more to baserunning than actual "speed").

Stealing is better more in a situation where 1 run means a lot and you need to avoid the double play. Running in front of Bautista with less than a 80% clip is stupid.