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Its just a flesh wound.

He's become an outmachine in the heart of the lineup. True, the Cards aren't lacking in outmachines right now- but this postseason was to be a goo-filled debutante ball for Adams. Besides the effect on this series, his performance is muddying the positive picture for Cardinal lineup/or trade options next year.

So -asking the GRB self-deemed authorities on hitting* -what the hell is going on with this guy? He doesn't seem to understand the strike zone. The swing doesn't look nearly as good as it did when he started.

On a related note - was watching game 3 with my friend who coaches HS (and once coached semi-pro team and was once a pretty good ball player). He seemed to think Adams weight could become a hampering issue-as he struggled with it at that age. The "moves well for a big man" may work ok at 25, but then gets worse.

*which excludes just about nobody here.

Freed Roger wrote:He's become an outmachine in the heart of the lineup. True, the Cards aren't lacking in outmachines right now- but this postseason was to be a goo-filled debutante ball for Adams. Besides the effect on this series, his performance is muddying the positive picture for Cardinal lineup/or trade options next year.

So -asking the GRB self-deemed authorities on hitting* -what the hell is going on with this guy? He doesn't seem to understand the strike zone. The swing doesn't look nearly as good as it did when he started.

On a related note - was watching game 3 with my friend who coaches HS (and once coached semi-pro team and was once a pretty good ball player). He seemed to think Adams weight could become a hampering issue-as he struggled with it at that age. The "moves well for a big man" may work ok at 25, but then gets worse.

*which excludes just about nobody here.

I think that if it was Holliday or Molina or Craig we'd either not talking about it at all or talking about he's been putting together some good at bats and hitting balls right at guys.

In other words, I'm not worried.

He's looked foolish against lefties at times, but to an extent, that was expected, and he also has some good at bats sprinkled in there against them as well.

RxOfCowbell wrote: I think that if it was Holliday or Molina or Craig we'd either not talking about it at all or talking about he's been putting together some good at bats and hitting balls right at guys.

In other words, I'm not worried.

He's looked foolish against lefties at times, but to an extent, that was expected, and he also has some good at bats sprinkled in there against them as well.

He's not hitting like Holliday/Craig/Molina.

I agree, he's hit a few balls well for outs. But looks confused about the strike zone, and guessing wrong quite a bit. The hope was to not have him as a platoon guy going forward.

And basically I'm just putting this on here -hoping he jacks one out tonight and people can bump this thread.

The postseason puts players under such a microscope. You're also always facing elite pitching -- the starters are usually excellent and you never see bad relievers. It's a bad place to judge players. Teams, including the Cardinals, aren't going to make roster decisions or trade decisions based on a handful of postseason AB's. Maybe they used to do those things, but with the growth of sabermetric analysis across the league, GM's are swayed much more by large sample sizes and projections than they are by clutch or non-clutch performances over a handful of highly visible ab's.

Fat Strat wrote:The postseason puts players under such a microscope. You're also always facing elite pitching -- the starters are usually excellent and you never see bad relievers. It's a bad place to judge players. Teams, including the Cardinals, aren't going to make roster decisions or trade decisions based on a handful of postseason AB's. Maybe they used to do those things, but with the growth of sabermetric analysis across the league, GM's are swayed much more by large sample sizes and projections than they are by clutch or non-clutch performances over a handful of highly visible ab's.

I realize all that. And the arm injury too. Also - the scouting and pitch selection on players is undoubtedly more precise in postseason.

However - good pitching in post-season can be an acid test of capabilities -compared to some of the late-season callups he was facing in season. the season wasn't a huge sample size either. I'm not sure opposing teams had an established approach to handling the big lug yet.

We shall see. Baby Dunc is one player that comes to mind. On the other hand, Allen Craig didn't look very good and hit into bad luck against Giants last post-season - and is more than ok.

One thing Adams did incredibly well throughout the minors every time I saw him, and that he's done very well at the MLB level, is adjust. His bat-to-ball skill is good enough, and he's smart enough as a hitter, and he's been developed well by Lunhow/Vuch and their teams, that pitchers have to consistently adjust to him because he's consistently adjusting to them. He can do it from PA to PA, and within a PA.

I don't think we're seeing a hitter who is entirely fooled. There have been some hard-hit balls that landed in gloves. I'm thinking of one to Pedey and another later in I think Game 2, that both could have been hits on a different day. There's some loss of bat speed to the arm, and some small sample size in the WS. I think he'll be fine come April.

Freed Roger wrote:

Fat Strat wrote:The postseason puts players under such a microscope. You're also always facing elite pitching -- the starters are usually excellent and you never see bad relievers. It's a bad place to judge players. Teams, including the Cardinals, aren't going to make roster decisions or trade decisions based on a handful of postseason AB's. Maybe they used to do those things, but with the growth of sabermetric analysis across the league, GM's are swayed much more by large sample sizes and projections than they are by clutch or non-clutch performances over a handful of highly visible ab's.

I realize all that. And the arm injury too. Also - the scouting and pitch selection on players is undoubtedly more precise in postseason.

However - good pitching in post-season can be an acid test of capabilities -compared to some of the late-season callups he was facing in season. the season wasn't a huge sample size either. I'm not sure opposing teams had an established approach to handling the big lug yet.

We shall see. Baby Dunc is one player that comes to mind. On the other hand, Allen Craig didn't look very good and hit into bad luck against Giants last post-season - and is more than ok.

Chris Duncan compiled a .735 OPS in the minors. Adams put up a .927 OPS over 1400 at-bats in the minors.

Adams has almost 2000 professional at-bats. I'm not going to judge him on the last 40.

33anda3rd wrote:One thing Adams did incredibly well throughout the minors every time I saw him, and that he's done very well at the MLB level, is adjust. His bat-to-ball skill is good enough, and he's smart enough as a hitter, and he's been developed well by Lunhow/Vuch and their teams, that pitchers have to consistently adjust to him because he's consistently adjusting to them. He can do it from PA to PA, and within a PA.

I don't think we're seeing a hitter who is entirely fooled. There have been some hard-hit balls that landed in gloves. I'm thinking of one to Pedey and another later in I think Game 2, that both could have been hits on a different day. There's some loss of bat speed to the arm, and some small sample size in the WS. I think he'll be fine come April.

I felt like the shift hurt him a little, and then he started going the other way. Some of the balls he hit to LF were dove at and caught only because the LF was playing so shallow in front of the Monster.