Wombat Returns!

[WenZink]

 
Taking your contemporary guys..... why exactly does Middlebrooks belong in this group?
 
Minor League career #s;
 
Belle:      .298/.361/.533/.894
Vaughn:  .284/.378/.490/.869
Sexson:  .278/.344/.474/.818
Davis:     .318/.374/.596/.970
 
WMB:     .274/.331/.453/.787
 

...

 
Because I referred to the fact that WMB's milb OBP was .350 at AA and AAA, comparable to Albert Belle.  I discounted the fact that he had an OBP < .300 in 200+ PA's at Lowell when he was 19.  And all of the 4 had very low OBP when they first reached the majors.   Davis had excellent OBP in milb, but with his 4 years in Texas, barely had a career OBP > .300 before he went to the Orioles in 2012.  He'd shown power, but not much else when he was traded to Baltimore at the age of 25... same age as WMB.
 
\If you want exact clones of each other, it's going to take time to research, but these 4 are the ones that came to mind.

 

[Lowrielicious]

Is it me or all the last two posts 100% bold?  I was trying to figure out the distinctions referenced by
the bolding but it's not really possible when everything looks bold.

Could be an unended(unclosed?) bold tag in the post.

Will see if I can close it with this post

test?

EDIT: nevermind - problem doesnt flow to next page.

 

[ScubaSteveAvery]

 
 
 
The O-Swing% is obviously down and the BB% is up, so obviously there's improvement in the plate approach. I'm having trouble seeing where it's coming from.
 
And yeah, smas was correct earlier about my pithiness about discussion versus micro=analysis. Here's Scub's post from last year on WMB's development, complete with heat charts. I'm going to post the same ones in the same order because I've been looking at them back and forth and I can't figure out where the improvement is coming from.
 
One thing that is clear is that "the book on WMB" has definitely been disseminated and pitchers are pounding him low and away. HIs swing and whiff tendencies, though, don't seem to be radically different with one major exception: he's laying off the ones way down and away and out of the zone. This is obviously good, but it doesn't help him when he faces a pitcher who can hit the spot in the zone.
 
Anyway, here are the charts for this year courtesy of the inestimable jnai via BrooksBaseball:
 
OK, so maybe I won't post them until Photobucket starts working again. Blerg. But you can go to BrooksBaseball and pull Middlebrook's card and look at them pretty easily if you want.  <_<
 

 
Here are the charts for this season:
 

 
As you mentioned, the book on him is still clearly down and away.  Nearly a quarter of all pitches thrown to him are down and away (23.8%).  Pitchers are left the upper part of the zone alone for WMB and still avoid down and in.  
 
If we look at whiffs: 
 

 
The down and away spot is slightly worse for him this year for whiffs.  But just like last year, the amount of whiffs on pitches up in the zone are staggering.  Its interesting that pitchers don't throw him up a lot, but he is still clearly struggling with pitches up in the zone. Which is doubly troubling, because just like last year:
 

 
He loves to swing at pitches up in the zone. He is not swinging at as many pitches up and in as he did last year, but he is still swinging at the same amount middle up and  up and away.  Just to hammer the point home that he still has glaring holes in his swing, take a look at whiffs per swing:
 

 
Yeah...down and away and up in the zone are money spots for pitchers. 
 
Now, despite the same two huge holes showing up, he has stopping swinging at as many balls on the outside half of the plate (middle and middle up), and has stopped swinging at as many balls inside (middle and middle up).  This has definitely helped him this season.  His swing % chart is a bit more concentrated on the zone than it was last year.  However, the holes persist, which is probably most troubling of all.  
 
Thanks again to BrooksBaseball for putting these together. 

 

[Year of Yaz]

I think the WMB situation is pretty simple; his pitch recognition is poor. It might, or might, improve. As to his eyesight, the team can't force him to wear contact lenses but I'm sure they have strongly voiced their opinion. I'm sure they did some research and it seems unlikey he would go against their recommendation.

 

[absintheofmalaise]

I think the YoY problem is pretty simple. He just won't make the effort to post well. He might or might not improve. I doubt he will though. We can't force him to improve and so far, he has ignored our request to improve. If he had done any research he would see what happens to posters who don't make an effort and improve

 

[Reverend]

Can the club make Middlebrooks wear the Rick Vaughn glasses when he comes back?

 

[Adrian's Dome]

Can the club make Middlebrooks wear the Rick Vaughn glasses when he comes back?

 
"We're going to give you a real, adult, major-league choice: glasses or Pawtucket."