Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
I think the bigger issue was in relying on Maloof and David to help the young hitters that are crucial to KC's success.
Hosmer again looks like the superstar in waiting we all saw in 2011. It's hard to argue with the way he's been hitting the ball, especially the past 4 weeks. He has a .900+ OPS in the past 6 weeks (since June 1)
Moustakas also has taken a big step forward. He's a .750+ OPS guy in the past 4 weeks. He's needs to expand that out over a larger sample size, but that's significant and encouraging improvement. The last time he got hot, it lasted about 3 weeks
The Royals need one of those two guys to be a star and the other to be at least an average hitter at his position. Things are moving in that direction.
Escobar and Butler have regressed. I'm confident Butler will rebound and end up with an OPS in his usual range.
Escobar is a better hitter than he's shown - he got pull happy early - but he shouldn't be hitting 2nd. He should be hitting 8th or 9th. With his D - even with the errors - they don't need him to be a star bat if they hit him in an appropriate lineup spot.
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IMO it is not the Butler has regressed as a hitter but if you defend him correctly you make him nothing more than a .260 singles hitter which is happening this year. Play your outfielders 5-10 ft in front of the warning track so that you can keep him to a single on any ball falling in front of you. Plus you are now close enough to track that a higher percentage of ball hit to the wall or warning track become outs instead of doubles. Also put an infielder behind 2nd base as most of his ground ball that make it out of infield go thru there. The only thing I would change in defending Butler is to back up my infielders another 5-10 feet when possible.