"I wonder who is going to drive me home this time."
Over the past 8 games Ellsbury has had 5 multi-hit games, leading to a batting average of .514, and an on-base percentage of .564. That on top of the fact that he's stolen 7 bases, while being caught only once, during that same stretch has no doubt been key to the Yankees winning 6 of those 8 games.
While nobody believes he's going to keep hitting like this, I wondered how far Ellsbury's offense will fall. In doing so I found something interesting about his slash line over the past 8 games... a slugging percentage of .543. Not that that's small, but it's actually lower than his OBP, which is rare. Out of his 18 hits during this streak only one of them has been for multiple bases (a double).
So what's up?
Perhaps some of you could shed light on this, but it seems to me that Jacoby has abandoned the "power" part of his game, and resigned himself to be somebody that "sets the table" for guys like Brian McCann and Brett Gardner (7 and 8 RBI, respectively, over those 8 games).
That leaves me to wonder... has Ellsbury changed his approach at the plate, making him a guy that's not going to hit 20 or so home runs a season? Is Jacoby now more of a "place" setter instead of a "pace" setter?
Honestly I never thought of it but I could really see Ellsbury changing his approach. You don't even see Ellsbury trying to hit home runs anymore, he's become more of a line drive hitter willing to use his speed to get on base. I can't put it into words but you can see the way he is approaching every at bat this season makes him more likely to hit .300 then last year when he didn't know if he was the leadoff hitter or the #3 hitter with Beltran out.
ReplyDeleteGood shout.