[DJ's left nut]

May I ask why we should just shrug and walk away from contact hitting throughout baseball?

The easiest way to deal with high velocity is to stay back on the ball and look for a pitch to serve the other way. The Velo Explosion is real and undeniable but it's also relatively recent. Everyone didn't throw 98 in 2014 and Hamilton was effectively the same player that as he is now.

I know that the reduced contact rate means that you need more damage in terms of XBHs on balls that you do manage to put in play, but not everybody on the squad is gonna hit for power. And you need to have somebody out there that can play CF. So why wouldn't a guy like Hamilton, who can do some serious damage on the bases once he gets there, still have value - a single and a SB can be as effective as a double. And his defense in the launch angle era should be even more valuable as guys are trying to hit the ball in the air more than ever.

I mean ultimately there's a real possibility that Hamilton just isn't a very good player - but that's because he's just not a guy that hits well. He wasn't a good hitter in the minors either; his 2013 AAA season looks like everything he's ever done at the major league level and he wasn't facing a string of fireballers down there at the time. To use his speed he needs to get on base and his OBP vs. power pitchers is virtually identical to his OBP vs soft-tossers.

I don't see a lot to argue loudly about in this piece but ascribing Hamilton's decline to velocity is just kinda goofy. he does have a lousy career batting line because he's obstinate. If he would do more to work counts and try to dictate ABs rather than just falling into the opposing pitchers wheelhouse and letting the pitcher dictate the course of the AB, he might see more success.

Or he may just not be very good and in the end velocity only exacerbated an issue for him the same way it does for everyone. Velocity makes hitting harder, but not any more so for Hamilton than it does for, say, Khris Davis.