Hardy since June 1

[rluzinski]

he was playing way over his head for the first two months, and now he's playing below his ability...allowing his numbers to regress towards what was eexpected of him

 

That's exactly what I was thinking. I don't think Hardy really fits in the 2 spot anyway. He's a SS with a some pop who hasn't learned to walk much at the major league level yet. He seems more like a #6 guy to me. Unfortunately, the guy who looked perfect for #2 (Weeks) has fallen off a cliff as of late.

 

I certainly don't see Hall being moved back into the infield any time soon.

[monty57]

Good post TooLiveBrew.

 

Everybody gets banged up throughout the season, so Hardy could be nursing a small injury, but it's also likely that Hardy's going through one of the "down cycles" of a long season. He does seem to always take the first pitch, but he's always done that... perhaps the pitchers have caught on, leading him to be down 0-1 more often than he's up 1-0.

 

Not to hijack the thread, but since Graffy to LF was brought up, I would think the "stat guys" would be praising Yost for this move. With Hall out, the Brewers only have two OFs that can hit lefties. Graffy's a solid (not showy) fielder who could probably play any position on the field at least reasonably well, and he's been hot of late, so why not let Rickie play against a lefty, who he normally hits well against, and give Graffy one shot in LF before Hall gets back and things are back to normal.

[Athens Badger]

Someone actually expcected 25 HRs from him?

[TerraceReserved]

Quote:

---

Someone actually expcected 25 HRs from him?

---

 

After his quick start, I thought he could obtain this. Of course, I knew he would cool down, which he has, but I thought he might be hitting a couple more homers.

[logan82]

I saw him as batting .280 with 18 HRs so I guess he is about where I expected. I hope he doesn't go the rest of the year without hitting any more homers. I doubt that will be the case. I guess I see this more as regressing towards where he was expected more than anything else. He is just in one of the bad streaks that even things out.

[pogokat]

i think that .800 OPS and 25 homers was about the projected peak, so i don't think that was crazy...

[1992casey]

From Hardy and Hart get a day off:

"Benched!" Hardy joked. ?

 

Both had been struggling. Hart was in an 0-for-11 slump and was hitting .156 (5-for-32) since the end of a career-high 22-game hitting streak. Hardy had five hits in his last 35 at-bats (.143) and was hitting .217 since the start of June.

 

"I just don't feel good," Hardy said. "I don't feel strong in the batter's box. I'm thinking about everything but my plan up there. I'm going up there thinking about where my hands are and taking good pitches, getting behind in the count and then swinging at whatever they throw."

 

"I think I'm mentally tired and I might be a little physically tired," he said. "It's just a battle. But I always go through slumps and am always working on trying to feel good, and this is the same way. I'm just trying to get comfortable to where I don't have to worry about anything but hitting. Everyone goes through it."

[dadofandrew]

If you'll notice, you hardly ever see a fastball in the strike zone anymore for JJ. Until he stops chasing high heat and breaking balls in the dirt, he won't see many either.

[sweepscc]

JJ needs to hit some weights in the off season and get his body in shape for a 162 game season which he hasn't completed in quite some time. IMO, that is the crux of his problem after his first 60 games. He needs to work on his strength and conditioning much more in the off season.

[02john]

I was hoping they would give Hardy a day off before or after the off day, to get him two off in a row (same thing with Weeks). In a effort

to keep him(them) fresh.

 

02john

[Samurai Bucky]

As others have suggested, perhaps he is just tired. Yost has been having him sit a lot lately, and that might be so he can get his legs back.

 

I don't know if this is a small thing or not, but when he sets up and is ready for the pitch, it looks like his hands may be farther behind him than earlier in the year. Perhaps I was just looking at one or two pictures / footage from earlier in the year that wasn't really a good sampling of his stance.

 

The main reason might be that, as others have mentioned, he is being pitched away more and seeing more junk. He may also have a bit of Hall-itis. What is Hall-itis? Recenly, Billy seems like he had to pull everything. Once in awhile, he tries to spray, but he still has problems pulling that shoulder. Put Jenkins in that category, too.

[Fatter than Joey]

If you'll notice, you hardly ever see a fastball in the strike zone anymore for JJ. Until he stops chasing high heat and breaking balls in the dirt, he won't see many either.

 

Exactly -- When Hardy came back in 2007, he got a healthy diet of fastballs meant to challenge him. To his credit he started hitting everything out of the park. MLB pitchers adjusted, and now have a pretty good strategy for getting him out. It will be up to Hardy now to adjust to the pitchers' approach.

 

I also think there is a lot of merit to the idea that he is hitting some sort of wall, as he doesn't have a lot of 162 game seasons under his belt.

[JJHardy7]

I think he's a bit tired since he hasn't played a full season in a few years and he needs to adapt to the way pitchers are pitching to him.

[GenoSeligPrieb]

Too bad I was travelling and out-of-pocket for the last few days, whic means I'm coming late to a VERY good discussion here.

 

I agree with many of you, especially Loopee, that pitchers see JJ swinging and missing at high and outside crap, and wanna bet that's what he'll continue to see, until he lays off it?

 

I don't attribute it to sore legs, bad luck, a tired butt, his sense of "derscholgn" or even fatigue, as JJ himself said.

 

Just poor pitch selection on his part, and excellent reactive scouting on the part of our opponents.

 

I don't even attribute this to the levelling off process, or regression to the mean. Sure, he was hitting way over what anyone expected from him in the first few months of the season, but as Fatter Than Joey said, that was because pitchers hadn't yet discovered his weak spot. Once they did, and he reacted so poorly, that's all he was going to get. Just imagine if they didn't find his soft spot! He'd have 30 homers by now.

 

Like Logan said, I expected him to be around .280 with 15-20 HR's. If he hits 5 more the rest of the year, I won't be surprised, but if he reacts (Jim Skaalen? Are you in his ear about swinging at the high-n-outside junk?), he could hit 10-15 more, and his average can climb back to the upper .280s and perhaps beyond.

[Ennder]

I'm willing to bet its a combination of factors, his worst slump happened while his back hurt. Even if pitchers didn't know how to throw to him he hit way too well for that to be the excuse, he just had a really hot april. While I'm sure pitchers have adjusted to him, he's not driving fast balls that he does get either so I think he's just been slumping lately.

 

I doubt its just they adjusted to him and thats it, before the adjustment he's a .950 OPS SS and after he's a .650 OPS. That is just too extreme. Its a little bit of each factor.

[1992casey]

sweepscc, when I look at JJ, I think it's apparent that he's been hitting the weights and working out a lot. However, adjusting his program to address stamina (in addition to or rather than bulk) might be in order.

 

I'm not sure that conditioning is necessarily an issue, though. Mental exhaustion can cause physical exhaustion. I remember taking a tour of the pyramids north of Mexico City. The 'vote' was that the tour would be conducted in Spanish. I listened?hard?and 'got' most of it. But I was physically exhausted after doing it and slept during the entire ride back to town.

[GenoSeligPrieb]

"I doubt its just they adjusted to him and thats it, before the adjustment he's a .950 OPS SS and after he's a .650 OPS. That is just too extreme. Its a little bit of each factor. "

 

I actually do.

 

Put an athelete in a situation where he won't be facing any unfavorable matchups, and he should thrive. Take 'em away, and start feeding him pretty much nothing but uncomfy situations, and his productivity nosedives.

 

If only JJ would have reacted by NOT swinging at all those high and outside pitches the first week he began seeing more of them, he'd probably draw walks on those palte appearances instead of striking out more often, and/or making so many more outs, and opposing pitchers would have to look for some other Kryptonite.

 

I know, it's easy for guys like us to say how we would have just simply laid off what appear to be appetizing pitches, but Skaalen, Ned and the veterans on the team should have put the word in his ear, right away, that they're starting to see some ugly swings at some bad stuff. And if they did (hell, someone probably did), then it's JJ's fault, as HE's failing to listen.

 

Why does that happen so often on this team?

[gregmag]

It's funny -- remember when he first came up a couple of years ago, and all he could do well at the plate was draw walks and not strike out? He seems now to have the ability to do everything well, but he has to learn how to switch modes -- cream the juicy pitches, let them walk you with the lousy ones. At his age, with his talent, I think he can make that adjustment and be a heck of a hitter, but I have no idea how long it takes.

 

Greg.