[duncan_idaho]

The assertion that Royals fans fled last summer to instead go watch “major” league soccer is perhaps the laziest part of that whole piece, which has several other lazy assertions.

I usually am a fan of Sheehan’s, but he’s also usually better than that.

Tying Hamilton’s lack of success as a hitter to the velocity jump around the league is also lazy. We’re not talking about a guy who had a gradual drop in performance or who fell off a cliff. This is who he has always been.

Any improvement he has as a hitter would have to come from becoming better at using his speed and adopting an approach that helps with that. If any team/setting could help with that, it’s KC. The sheer amount of space in his home OF should help a spray hitter, too.

Contact hitters are a little out of vogue at the moment, but they’ll cycle back as the market and pitching styles undervalue them. I think most also generally undervalue the effect of stolen base threats... haven’t seen a system yet that evaluates the effect a great stolen base threat has on the pitch selection and effectiveness of pitchers.

For example... Adalberto Mondesi is an excellent fastball hitter (all MLB hitters are, but he’s even more elite). With Hamilton and Merrifield hitting in front of him and posing SB threats, how many more fastballs will Mondesi see in attempts to control the running game? It’s an apps school thought and question, but I think new school analytics can quantify that effect.