Last week, I put together a list of hitters who were hitting under .200. Given the season is so young, I wanted to see how they fared after a mere three days. I expected to see fairly "dramatic" and a good weekend should be enough to move any of these players north of the Mendoza line.
There were four players who did escape the Route 100s, and another who added 49 points to his AVG. If Dave Ortiz wasn't so awful going into the weekend (.111), I suspect he'd have crossed into the 200s.
What surprised me was how many basically stuck at the same crappy AVG. What worries me are the two who couldn't add to their AVG despite the low hurdle they set to do so. Oakland A's OF Travis Buck lost 10 points, and White Sox 1B Paul Konerko lost two points.
Konerko doesn't scare me as much although I am afraid he will never be the .280ish hitter he was until he logged a .259 AVG last year. Given his age (32), I can see him as a resident of .260ville with the other 1B slugging types who lose something at the plate.
Travis Buck, on the other hand, has nothing in his major league career to support the faith he will get better. He can hit doubles, but those aren't exactly the stats that will keep the A's from reducing his ABs or taking them away altogether. Of course, the season is still very young, and a good four or five games will get him over 200!
Player Pre-weekend AVG/Post-weekend AVG:
Ivan Rodriguez .189/.231
Brad Hawpe .188/.246
JJ Hardy .180/.231
Paul Konerko .176/.172
Asdrubal Cabrera .173/.193
Jose Guillen .169/.173
Robinson Cano .167/.169
Troy Tulowitzki .167/.176
Travis Buck .164/.154
Hunter Pence .161/.212
Andruw Jones .157/.169
Jack Cust .146/.157
David Ortiz .111/.160