Today I wanted to take a look at a few players who struggled to begin the season, but have made improvements as the season has gone along and helped turn their seasons around.
Seth Mejias-Brean
Seth Mejias-Brean has improve his average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage in every month of the season so far. He has been solid or better in every month but April where he really struggled to find hits.
Looking at his peripherals, he really struggled to hit for power in April, but has seen his power go up each month of the season. His walk rate was at its peak in April, but has been solid to good all season long. His strikeout rate remained almost identical in April through June, but is up a tad in July though still at a good level. The walks and strikeouts have been good all year, but his increase of power by the month has been a big difference maker.
Travis Mattair
Travis Mattair struggled in April across the board and while he improved in May, he was still struggling some. June saw his average stagnate, but he saw big gains in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage. July has a big uptick in average and on-base percentage, but his slugging is down some from where it was in June.
Looking at the peripherals a few things stand out. His power has been rather pedestrian outside of a good month of June and is at the lowest point of the season. The walk rate in April really jumps out to you at just 1.3% and if you look at his strikeout rate in April you can really get a feeling as to why he struggled so much in the month. The walk rate bumped up in May and has been quite strong in June and July as he has become more patient at the plate. His strikeout rate declined from April to May and June, but in July he has really cut down on the number of strikeouts.
Aristides Aquino
With rookie ball players still being rather limited there can be large swings in stats in rather short periods of time that alter the overall line for players. Still, Aquino really struggled in June and and while he has been quite good in July the poor start to the season is holding down his overall numbers.
From a power and strikeout standpoint there isn’t much of a difference for Aquino as he produced virtually an identical isolated power number and his strikeout rates were within 2% of each other while both being a tad better than average. The big difference, much like what we saw with Travis Mattair, was the lack of walks in one of the months. Aquino was likely being overly aggressive in June and was not making the same type of contact he has been able to make in July where he has been a little more patient and likely swinging at better pitches overall.