FG on Fox: Robinson Cano’s Missing Power
Life is good for Robinson Cano. He likes his new city, and his new city likes him back. He’s secured the contract of a man’s wildest dreams, and he’s a leading vote-getter for the 2014 All-Star Game. He owns one of the top batting averages in all of baseball, and while Cano’s new team isn’t leading its division, it is in the race for the first time in years, with more total wins than Cano’s old team. There isn’t a lot of disappointment to be found anywhere. Ten-year contracts tend to lead to disappointment, but generally not in Year One, and this many months in, Cano is all smiles.
And Cano has been one of the better players in baseball. He has been the Mariners’ best position player, among a unit that needed a player like him. There’s just that one part of his statistical profile. Time and time again, people have been told that Cano is a line-drive hitter, not a power hitter. Well, it’s almost July, and Cano has four home runs. A year ago, he hit 27. Right now he has as many homers as Billy Hamilton, and we’re no longer dealing with insignificant sample sizes. Cano has never been considered a true power hitter, but he’s never been further from being a true power hitter as he is today.
Naturally, one gets to wondering. It’s not like Cano’s skills have eroded. His overall approach is the same, and he’s still drilling liners. You just wonder about the balls flying over the fence. Leaving New York doesn’t explain everything — a year ago, Cano actually hit five more dingers on the road. Seattle has long played lefty-friendly. There has to be more behind the power drought.
The easiest place to start is with Cano’s balls in play. Last year, 44 percent of them were grounders. He spent the prime of his career hovering in the mid-40s. This year, he’s up to 55 percent, and while it looked like Cano was coming out of it with a more air-friendly May, he’s gone back to hitting grounders in June. A change this sudden, to this degree, is notable, and obviously you can’t hit the ball out on a grounder or most liners. You turn your attention to Cano’s swing.
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Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.
How much has Cano been getting shifted this year vs. previous years?
I wonder if this is a reaction on his part to being shifted.
http://i.imgur.com/PgV6Elq.png……
Just something that might be relevant, this is a weird time to write this article since he has HR 4 times in the last 15 days….
no he hasn’t
4/17 (1 HR)
5/21 (1 HR)
6/11 (1 HR)
6/17 (1 HR)
Cano’s power is at Yankee Stadium with the jet stream and overpaid “power” bats that used to hit behind him.
Last year Cano had more homers on the road, and when he flipped out in the first half, he was most commonly protected by Vernon Wells, Kevin Youkilis, and Travis Hafner.
Have you watched the Yankees last year? Do you even follow baseball? I doubt that having Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay bat behind you is going to have a positive effect on your power output.
Hafner crushed too for a bit there early on if i remember right. Still, if you’re using last year only to justify Cano’s lack of power this season well then you got me. They did move the fences in in Seattle no? Lack of a consistent power bat behind him is my argument and i am sticking to it. I believe he himself foresaw that pre season and even barked about it to the media.
Kid,stop. Cano proved last year it doesn’t matter who’s hitting behind him, he’s gonna rake. His home and away splits for the past 5 years also say yankee stadium is not his power source
The Fox comments make me want to cry.
Cano’s power dropped last year in the 2nd half. He only hit 6 HR in his last 289 PA
say’s he hit 7 HRs in 290 PAs.
also keep in mind that “the road” in the AL east is much more pitcher friendly.
YS, fenway, AT&T and oriole park are all hitter friendly with only tropicana being pitcher friendly while the AL west parks (especially seattle, angels stadium and the dump in oakland) tend to be pitchers parks with texas being the exeption.
I think the AL west also has stronger pitching on average currently.