Thursday, June 04, 2009

Getting himself out

Garrett Atkins is on one of my fantasy teams and is really struggling. One good thing about the advanced stats on Fangraphs, you can try to see what's wrong. Surprisingly, Atkins' strikeout rate is lower than last year and his walk rate is improved. So that's not the answer.

Last year, Atkins batted .286/.328/.452 with 21 HR and 99 RBI. This season, he's .188/.264/.273 with 3 HR and 17 RBI. He only has 6 doubles and zero triples.

Of concern, Atkins' power stats have dropped steadily since 2006, when he posted a .965 OPS. His line drive percentage this season is a career low 14% compared to 22-24% the past several campaigns. He seems to be seeing fewer fastballs and more curves, but not a huge difference.

The most noticeable difference is in his contact rate on pitches outside the strike zone. His overall contact rate is almost the same as last year, but he is seeing fewer pitches inside the strike zone and making contact at 5.5% higher rate. I guess he is putting weak balls into play rather than driving balls. Hence, his struggles.

2 comments:

Stanley said...

Hmmm.... 2 dingers yesterday and 3 for 5 overall. Got any O's on your fantasy team that you'd care to write about?

Sparky said...

Obviously got Atkins straightened out. I do have Reimold, but he seems OK for now.