Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
Re: Billy Butler...
The guy is never going to be a consistent, 35+ HR hitter in Kaufman Stadium. That isn't his deal. And people should really stop expecting that.
He SHOULD be a .300 hitter who draws a ton of walks and posts an OBP in the .375-.400 range, while also slugging around .475-.500.
What's concerning this year isn't just the HR gap... it's that he isn't hitting doubles to pick up the slack. Last year, his double rate fell off by about 50 percent as he turned a lot of 2Bs into HRs.
This year, he's 2Bing at the same lower rate but without the increased HR power.
And actually, looking at his splits, it looks like the high number of day games has really affected him. Billy is hitting .304/.381/.462 at night. Pretty standard line for him.
He's been terrible in day games this year, though. .211/.358/.266. He typically has been a little bit better at night than during day games, but this season is the first time he's been drastically worse in day games.
It's probably a fluke/small sample size thing, but it's also possible that his eyes have changed a little bit and he needs to think about trying something out. Possibly trying those orange glasses/contacts that many players use during day games...
|
Billy has a great eye for the ball that most of our guys seem to lack. He just doesn't have the other tools that make a great ballplayer, especially as a DH. On this team, he can't afford to be as unathletic as he is.
According to the Royals website, he's 6'1" 240lbs. I'd put him at 5'11" 245 in real life. He's gotta drop at least 40lbs of fat (anyone who has seen his selfie KNOWS that's all dough and no go) to be in reasonably good shape. His relationship with food outside the game (rumors about his binge eating fetish notwithstanding) has to be brought under control, because it hurts his game if he's not pumping iron. Hell, Jason Giambi is 42 and is a better baserunner. Salvy can run circles around him. Adam Dunn could probably run circles around him and he's 6'6" ~285-300lb. In 2010, he got out-jumped by Joel Goldberg. JOEL GOLDBERG.
I like Billy, but to be effective on this team, he HAS to do something different. There are too many question marks in the lineup for him to not make the best of the opportunity he has (e.g. not being the Eric Cartman of baseball).