Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Your memory of Ron Gant is probably not quite right (I know mine isn't).
My memory of Gant is of a mistake hitting, K happy hacker with little strike zone discipline. Now go back and look at his career K numbers and BB numbers. No, he wasn't a low K guy by any means, but he wasn't anywhere near as bad as your memory probably portrays him. And he drew a bunch of walks in the process. He only had one truly bad K season over a 16 year career. Towards the end he got a little K happy but for most of his career he was a guy that was going to have about 60 BBs to 120 Ks.
Good lord, if Grichuk could manage that he'd be a legitimate superstar.
Gant is more like Ryan Ludwick than the free swinger you probably remember him as.
Truthfully, there aren't many good comps for Grichuk because most guys that do what he does just aren't very good. That's why I keep getting stuck with my Adam Jones comp (and even Jones doesn't have near the K rate Grichuk does). Statheads talk about the 3 true outcome players - Grichuk isn't even that. Grichuk is a 2 true outcome player at this point and I still don't know how he can possibly make that work long-term.
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It will depend on how he adjusts. The optimist in me says he already has (compared to what we saw last year) to a degree. Pitchers will adjust as well. If I am a pitcher that sees that AB yesterday I wouldn't throw him a strike even 3-1. He either doesn't recognize and guesses or he still has trouble harnessing his over aggressive tendencies. Hopefully it is more of the latter and not the former. If he's a guesser, he will be lucky to have Uggla's career. If he marginally improves his K rate, he could be Gant, average to solid pitch recognition and who knows what he could put up.
At least he is getting the opportunity now. If he is going to grow he needs to play consistently. I think he can learn to cut down on the K's, increase his walk rate which will lead to better overall numbers.