Brandon Belt hitting for power (maybe)

Published by on June 15, 2012 | 8 Responses

This will be your weekly Brandon Belt post. Also, I’m writing under the influence of cold medicine, so this could be interesting.

Well, well, would you look at that? It’s a mistake to read too much into small samples (and a three game series against the Astros is definitely in the realm of SSS), but I’m going to push that aside for a second and enjoy Brandon Belt’s last few games. Why? Because I want to, dang it. After hitting like a all-glove shortstop for most of the year, Belt suddenly found his power in the Houston Series — hitting a home run in each game after being held homer-less in his previous 48 games.

Belt entered the Houston series batting .224/.340/.328; he exited the series with a much more palatable .238/.353/.403. In three games, Belt went 4-10 with three home runs, two walks, and one strikeout. You can see from the ISO graph — a measure of a player’s power — that Belt added 63 points to his ISO. What does it mean for Belt? Well, it’s hard to say. You can’t read too much into three games, but I can say that it was great to see Belt drive the ball. For long stretches of this season he’s been a singles hitter with a good OBP. However, for most teams, the offensive demands of a first baseman are much higher than just a singles hitter with a good OBP.

It seems pretty clear that Belt should see an uptick in his playing time. He started against a LHP twice in the Houston series — coming into the series he had exactly one start against a LHP in 2012 — and while we would probably expect Belt to have a tougher time against LHP, he’s never really had a dramatic split against southpaws. In short: let him play. Belt’s swing has been a subject of debate this year, and it seems to me that steady, consistent playing time is just what the doctor ordered for a player looking to make an adjustment; you can’t make adjustments from the bench.

Belt’s still far from a sure thing. But, for now, it looks like the Giants are willing to give him an extended look at regular playing time. Doing so will benefit both Belt and the Giants.

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ogc
ogc

Well, the Giants have been pretty consistently saying that he should make needed changes to his batting mechanics to fix what ails him but until he looked at some tapes of his hitting in 2010, he had resisted those suggestions, which was a week or two ago.  

 

The Giants seems to keep the player out of games for a while, or in and out, while he absorbs and fully learns his new mechanics, like Crawford earlier this season in early May.  Once he was ready, they started playing him full-time again.  

 

Because Belt made those changes, the Giants finally started letting him have ABs vs. left-handers, when they could have went with Arias at 2B and Theriot at 1B.

 

And with Huff and Pill out of the way, I think people will assume that Bochy is only playing Belt because he don't have anyone else.  However, Bochy made a point in a recent game to point out an loud out that Belt made as a sign of good progress being made by Belt.  They aren't looking for just these homers, they want to see him make good contact.

 

About his lefty hitting, I think a 300 point difference is pretty dramatic; that is the difference in the minors.  If he could do that in the majors, he'll be like Ryan Howard or that ilk.  Unfortunately, that was the minors and he should do worse than what he did in AAA against LHP.  That he hasn't so far has to be considered a fluke of SSS.  

 

Hopefully, he can keep on hitting line drives left and right.  But clearly, the Giants must think that he is on the right track right now, else they would not have started him against lefties whereas before he was sitting.

Chris Quick
Chris Quick

 @ogc re: Belt's splits

 

vs LHP

2010 A+: 63 PA, .265/.429/.367; AA: 50 PA, .340/.380/.660, AAA: 16 PA, .214/.313/.500

2011 AAA: 61 PA, .275/.377/.392

Career MLB: 80 PA, .310/.375/.577

 

Of course, you're running into the problem of SSS with splits, but Belt's been fine as a LHB against LHP in his career. Not sure I see the problem. It looks like a pretty standard split for a lefty vs. a lefty.

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mskarpelos
mskarpelos

I would throw caution to the wind and bat Belt clean-up. My line-up would be Blanco, Melky, Buster, Belt, Panda, Pagan/Schierholtz, Theriot, Crawford, Pitcher. It's not a great line-up, but its a lot better than what the Giants won a championship with in 2010.

ogc
ogc

 @mskarpelos Part of the reason he has been scuffling for the past two seasons in the majors is because he's been gripping the bat hard because of the pressures of being in the majors and living up to that.  It screws him up when he's up there batting.  That's been well commented on by Giants management and by him in interviews.  

 

Even before the homers, his batting line was OK for a 7th hitter, so I would just keep batting him 7th until he's comfortable enough to move up higher.  We were lucky that with Blanco's emergence, that pushed Pagan down in the lineup, and enabled the Giants to not take a big hit offensively when having a firstbaseman bat 7th.  

Chris Quick
Chris Quick

 @ogc  @mskarpelos >> Part of the reason he has been scuffling for the past two seasons in the majors is because he's been gripping the bat hard because of the pressures of being in the majors and living up to that.

 

Yeah, no. Long distance psychological evaluations are totally useless for this kind of stuff.

mskarpelos
mskarpelos

I would throw caution to the wind and bat Belt clean-up. My line-up would be Blanco, Melky, Buster, Belt, Panda, Pagan/Schierholtz, Theriot, Crawford, Pitcher. It's not a great line-up, but if Lincecum, but its a lot better than what the Giants won a championship with in 2010.