The McDLT: Where Hopefully The Hot Stay Hot And The Cool Don’t
BJ Upton, Dan Wheeler, Dioner Navarro, Jason Bartlett, Jeff Niemann, Matt Garza, Matt Moore, Nick Barnese, Rhyne Hughes June 22nd. 2009, 11:00am[table id=21 /]
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Also of note for “Who’s Not”: Carl Crawford’s speed. Over the past 23 games, CC has stolen only 7 bags with 5 caught stealing.
This is probably due in part to BJ actually being on base in front of him. But if this keeps up, it’ll be tough for him to get to 60 steals this season, much less the 100 that were whispered about earlier.
You may not consider him eligible because he does not get regular playing time, but you might have added Kapler to your “Who’s hot” list. In his last 7 games, he has gotten a hit in all but one. In that case he was 0-1 as a pinch hitter. Otherwise, he is 9/16 with 2 doubles, 1 triple and 4 home runs, two of which either won or tied games. He also has 13 RBIs in those 16 ABs and 3BBs to just 1K.
His line in those 7 games is .563/.632/1.563 which brings his overall line for the year against lefties to .308/.392/.677. In 74 PAs against lefties he has 10BBs and 7Ks this season.
None of this proves anything, any more than his miserable start proved much. He may slump again. But it does provide hope that he may continue to be useful to the Rays this year and that fans may want to be a bit less hasty in calling him, or other struggling players, nasty names or in judging a player’s value based on small samples in disregard of the wider lens of history.
I’m very happy that Kapler has started to hit the ball. Not too long ago I was one of the fans calling for Kapler’s designation and hoping for a secure most-days spot in RF for Joyce. We can all see how things have changed. I am glad that I was wrong about Kapler and lets hope he continues to play as well as he’s been playing lately. I’m also hoping Joyce turns it around. I’d like to see him get hot and earn a promotion later this summer.