Friday, September 17, 2010

Lind Stricken with Virulent Anti-Citocity Fever



It's Friday and that's a good thing. The season is drawing to a close so the time for reflection and analysis is almost upon us. I hope to delve deeper into this issue more this winter, but for now I'll settle for a little theft.

Like most things you read here, I took this idea from the amazing Baseball Analysts. Yesterday Jeremy Greenhouse created spray charts and contrasted them from year to year. So simple yet so effective.

I took it upon myself to look at Adam Lind, a player I praised and believed slump-proof thanks to his ability to hit to all fields with power. Turns out he stopped doing that and promptly dove into a season-long slump! Read it and weep:

gif animator


You'll notice the blue ellipse I added for effect. A total lack of hits to the left field power alley, a drastic reduction in opposite field home runs. Maybe teams got smarter by shading him to that alley, though he isn't even really making outs in those spots.

All in all, a thoroughly disappointing year for Lind, one I'm sure he can't wait to end. Expect a closer look during the long winter years, this will have to suffice as your nightmare fuel for the day.

Spray charts courtesy of Texas Leaguers, an amazing resource. Read Baseball Analysts every day.

15 comments:

  1. I wish I could find it, but I remember clear as anything Cito saying last year that he wanted to turn Lind into more of a pull hitter, but since he was having such a good season in 2009, he wasn't going to tell him to make any adjustments until the offseason. Clearly, he followed through with the plan.

    What I'm worried about, though, is whether Lind can get back to doing what he always did best once Cito's gone, or if this will be a lingering effect of The Manager. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for Lind to be Lind again.

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  2. Why would you try to turn Lind into anything after last year? He was a complete hitter. Now he's complete crap. He turned him into a pumpkin.

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  3. Drew, I am a complete and utter Twitter novice, so tell me, did you get the gif animator from my tweet?

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  4. I actually used the one Ian sent, as it was web-based for my minimal needs. Thanks for the help, it is greatly appreciated!

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  5. THere seems to be a complete lack of outs in LF in 2009. Does it give you the batting average splits on balls hit the opposite way between 2009 and 2010?

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  6. Adam Lind, wOBA to left/center/right in 2009: .482/.431/.432

    Adam Lind. wOBA to L/C/R in 2010
    .427/.285/.397

    Adam Lind BABIP 2009 - .323. 2010 - .263

    Adam Lind contact rate 2009: 82.7% 2010: 78.4%

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  7. Thank you for not only putting into words what many of us suspected but also finding the hard evidence to support it. No writer (blogger or otherwise) covering the Jays does a better job of keeping it real than you do.

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  8. Now if I remember correctly, Lind was a dead pull hitter up until last year, it was because he started hitting the ball to all fields that he became an elite hitter. Cito was generally credited for getting Lind to make that change, now that Lind has gone back to being a pull hitter, this is also because of Cito's influence? Something doesn't add up here?

    My guess is that after early season struggles, Lind went back to what he's more comfortable (being a pull hitter) to try and get out of the slump, and this was entirely his own decision.

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  9. You're right, something doesn't add it. It's under Cito's influence he succeeds, but he struggles because he ignores him?

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  10. Well the drop in BABIP and the drop in wOBA to left and centre could be correlated to less hard hit balls in those directions.

    I thought if you're ever in a slump, you're supposed to try to hit the ball up the middle and you'll eventually get your timing back. Hasn't Lind tried this???

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  11. Navin, might I suggest staring at the spray chart until you see dolphins.

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  12. Well young Adam had a nice pull-happy evening yesterday. Cito must've been right. Or wrong?

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  13. Adam Lind OPS by month:

    .843
    .532
    .450
    .832
    .856
    .792

    it's not close to last year but outside of two extremely atrocious months he hasn't really been that bad this year. Just sayin'

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  14. Though, to be the devil's advocate, he hasn't come within 50 points of OPS in any one month this year to what he posted for last season.

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