(Hat tip to WasWatching.com reader “hopbitters” for the heads-up on this one.)

I just read Josh Kalk’s “Anatomy of a player: Robinson Cano” at The Hardball Times. Josh concludes that:

Cano simply can’t lay off low and away change-ups from right-handed pitching. While he is making contact with these pitches, he is often rolling over and weakly grounding out. The change-up from a right-handed pitcher moves away from a left-handed batter and it appears that Cano is getting fooled often by these pitches and swinging even when the ball is far outside the strike zone. It also points to the possibility that Cano isn’t picking up the ball quickly and thinks fastball only to swing and realize the pitch was a change-up away from him. Again, because he is getting himself out on this pitch, he is seeing a pretty hefty diet of off-speed pitches away. Cano needs to lay off this pitch if he is to get better pitches to hit.

While it is extremely unlikely that Cano is going to keep hitting this far below the Mendoza line, it definitely appears that something significant has changed in his approach this season. First and foremost, Cano simply has to be more selective at the plate. His problem isn’t swinging and missing at pitches but putting way too many balls in play when the pitch is a foot outside the zone. When he becomes more selective, pitchers will have to come in to him and then he can effectively pull the ball the way it appears he wants so desperately to do. Unless he can make these corrections, he is going to have a long season.

Just this past Saturday, I was listening to the Yankees game on the radio. And, Suzyn Waldman – at least I think it was her and not John Sterling – said that Kevin Long, and the Yankees brass, felt that Cano was standing too far off the plate, and that was adversely impacting his ability to handle the outside pitch. But, as she reported, Cano didn’t want to move closer to the dish because he felt that pitchers were jamming him with inside pitches.

Sure enough, when I got home, and caught the end of the game on YES, it looked like Cano was way off the plate (with his stance).

Kalk’s data backs-up what Waldman reported and what my eyes confirmed. What’s really amazing is that the Yankees know what the issue is – and, yet, Cano will not follow their advice.

Maybe a couple of weeks in Scranton will warm up Robby to the notion of not being so far off the plate?