It looks like Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks has finally emerged from the horrible hitting slump that kept his batting average under .200 until late July. Weeks went into the Brewers' July 25th game at Philadelphia hitting just .190. He had four hits in that 7-6 Brewers loss, and raised his average to .200. Weeks is hitting .315 since July 25th (28 for 89) and has raised his season average to .219. That's not a huge jump, but at this stage in the season it's difficult to move an average up very much.
It turns out that Weeks continued to experience discomfort from the ankle sprain he suffered back in July of 2011, and this discomfort caused him to alter his batting stance to compensate. Weeks refused to use that as an excuse, and credits hard work and a lot of extra batting practice for finally getting over the slump.
I had suspected that lingering ankle problems contributed to Weeks' problems at the plate. It doesn't take much of an alteration in a batter's stance to throw things off. Weeks' determination and hard work got him through this, but it's unclear to me how much help the coaching staff was. If Weeks was indeed compensating for his sore ankle by altering his stance or swing, it seems to me that a detailed analysis by the hitting coach or someone else in the organization would reveal this. If they did notice anything, they certainly said nothing publicly about how or if they were working with him to correct the problem.
Reliever Jesus Sanchez is doing well at Triple A Nashville
With the overall poor performance of the bullpen this season, the upcoming September 1st roster expansion is a chance for the Brewers to bring up some minor league pitching prospects and see how they perform at the big league level. One of these pitchers who should get a call up is right-hander Jesus Sanchez, currently at Triple A Nashville.
Sanchez is a former starter who was converted to a reliever in 2011. He started the 2012 season at Double A Huntsville, and was 3-2 with a 1.59 ERA in 32 appearances (45 1/3 innings). That earned him a promotion to Nashville. Sanchez had a rough outing on August 19th, allowing 2 earned runs in 1/3 of an inning, but his numbers with the Sounds are still very good; 4-0 with a 2.00 ERA in 15 games (18 innings pitched). Sanchez, who turns 25 in September, is worth taking a look at and should earn an invitation to Spring Training if he performs well.
A lifelong resident of Wisconsin, Mark Hudziak is a Featured Contributor in Sports for the Yahoo! Contributor Network and a long time fan of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Sources:
Weeks turned it around through hard work
Nashville Sounds Official Website
Milwaukee Brewers on Yahoo! Sports
More from this contributor:
Aramis Ramirez Quietly Having Productive Season for Fading Milwaukee Brewers: Fan's View
Wisconsin Badgers Ranked 12th in USA Today 2012 Preseason Coaches' Poll: Fan Reaction
No comments:
Post a Comment