07-22-2019, 10:26 AM
(07-22-2019, 09:14 AM)Phogge Wrote: Ted Williams had a plan too. Brandon Belt is not Ted Williams. He’s closer to Ted Nugent. And Nugent wants his shirt back.
Belt reminds me of a poor man's Darrell Evans: lower quality hitter but similar OBP and OPS. Belt doesn't have Evans' HR power but has part of Evans' strike zone selectivity (lots of BB's). But Evans didn't strikeout much and Belt K's a lot. Evans played pretty good D at third until he moved to 1B during his late career power surge in the other league. Belt's defense looks good but the metrics are less favorable than I had thought.
I remember having similar frustration watching Evans repeatedly walk with runners on. But unlike Belt, Evans' approach seemed to be "if you pitch it where I want it, I'll try to hit it out, but if you don't, I'll happily walk." At times, this resulted in him hitting second, but for a larger part of his SF career, he hit lower in the order, 6th or 7th. Basically a dead pull, fly ball hitter who simply fouled off or ignored pitches on the outside of the plate. It's hard for me to understand Belt's hitting approach other than it seems passive. Always hoped he'd become a 20/80 guy.