Robbie Cano, Where’d Ya Go?
Below is Robinson Cano’s 2009 season, to date, with the bat – in terms of his first 51 Plate Appearances this season, his last 53 Plate Appearances this season, and the 58 Plate Appearances in between those two snapshots:
PA BA OBP SLG 51 .391 .451 .630 PA BA OBP SLG 58 .339 .345 .518 PA BA OBP SLG 53 .160 .208 .280
Not exactly trending in a nice line for Robbie, huh? Obviously, the first 58 PA were off-the-charts good and not something that one should have expected him to keep up.
The bigger question may be the second and third set of numbers. Many Yankees fans would hope that a .339/.345/.518 slash-line for Cano is what we would see from him this year. Then again, maybe that’s kind of lofty too? Cano’s last 53 PA are “Call Mimi Bobeck – I need a slump buster!” territory. However, there’s no way that he should be that bad for an extended period of time. CC Sabathia could out-hit those numbers if you gave him 50 PA and a box of bats.
Overall, Cano’s slash-line on the season is: .296/.333/.474 (in 162 PA). And, that’s probably the proper level to expect from him. It would just be nice if he consistently produced at this level…instead of running red hot and then ice cold…
For some reason, Kevin Long let him open his stance up again, just a bit, even though they worked all winter on closing the stance and he started the season like a bat out of hell. I really do not get it.
Thought I’d repost this fangraphs article
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/rowing-the-cano