JABO: On Mookie and McCutchen
“I call him ‘Little Cutch,’” Victorino said, referring to Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen, the reigning NL MVP. “Watch him out there. His movements, everything, he’s like a little McCutchen.”
Shane Victorino on Mookie Betts, spoken in an interview last July.
Mookie-mania has taken over the Grapefruit League, as the Red Sox new centerfielder is #2 among all hitters this spring in batting average (.467), on-base percentage (.500), and slugging percentage (.867), causing others to see Victorino’s comparison as a lot less crazy than it sounded last summer.
On Monday, Ken Rosenthal asked a number of evaluators and many of Betts’ teammates about the comparison, and no one really pushed back too hard; David Ortiz even pushed the comparison further.
“I’d even go further,” Ortiz said. “He’s better than McCutchen at that time in McCutchen’s career. Go and double-check that.”
Ortiz isn’t wrong.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
oh God, Boston’s overrated prospect syndrome has reached the players. Lived the Piece though Dave, very well written and I couldn’t agree more.
It’s like when the running joke about how bad jeter’s defense was…. yet he still kept getting gold gloves.
Just because Jeter got those gold gloves doesn’t mean he wasn’t over-rated there. He was terrible there. You trust those gold gloves? Tell me more about the one Palmeiro won when he was primarily a DH.
April Fools, right? Please tell me this is a classic April Fools article.
Even Lars Anderson wasn’t this overhyped.
Okay, I read the article. Phew.
I thought the exact same thing when i saw the headline and before reading the whole article
Dave Cameron and Mookie Betts need to get a room. Haven’t read this yet, but, man, Betts is all Cameron writes about.
If you haven’t read the article, don’t comment.
Or, more to the point given the username: if you don’t know how to do humor on the internet, don’t attempt it.
Carlos Gonzalez is another example of sacrificing contact for power, although his 4.4% Z-Contact% drop was masked by a modest rebound in O-Contact%. As for Betts, his frame will always be a limitation. He’s more slight than McCutchen and doesn’t appear to have much room to add significant muscle mass. That limits his power potential.
are any red sox fans worried that the team keeps saying, management and players, that they no longer believe in working the count and taking pitches, but rather that swinging early and often is not only the gameplan, but a key attribute of the hitters they targetted this offseason?
the red sox of the last decade have been the epitome of the patient approach, and it has led to tremendous offensive success….and now they are loudly and clearly abandoning that approach…which seems odd.
I hope they’re not blaming last year on too much patience at the plate, rather than just unsurprising flops from rookies (xander, bradley) and vets (victorino, pierzynski). I don’t think those guys stunk because they were too patient.
I don’t understand why the most obvious comp– Dustin Pedroia– keeps getting overlooked. Mookie doesn’t look likely to be a 25+ HR guy, but he does seem likely to be a consistent 300 BA/400 OBP guy w/ a little pop (15 HRs). So basically, his ceiling seems like a better version of Pedey (better OBP, more speed).
It used to be a common comparison, which along with it being so obvious is probably why people look for alternatives now. That said, I would be pretty surprised if Betts ended up posting higher OBPs than peak-Pedroia. As strong as Mookie’s contact skills and pitch recognition are, Dustin’s were even better.
I agree, it’s a fairly similar swing too from both small frames. Mookie has some more bat speed but not the same scrappiness and power as Dustin.
No way are their swings similar. Mookie’s is fluid and effortless. It reminds me more of a righty J.D. Drew. Dustin has an explosive, violent, full effort hack.
Small second basemen with similar results…but much different swings.
The last two sentences are gold. Perfect analogy, Dave.
i dont understand the causality here. mccutchen’s drop in contact % corresponds to a drop in zone % and an increase in swing rate. doesnt it make sense that his contact rate is lower because he’s getting tougher pitches to make contact with? how does a drop in contact rate imply a conscious decision to swing for power?
Follow the link to the MLB stats, and Mookie’s not there. Must be an April Fool’s joke? Perhaps he was temporarily removed from the Qualifiers. It’s after midnight on the west coast. MLB is slacking…
Mookie doesn’t need to sacrifice contact for power. He may not get a lot of home runs, but he is an XBH monster.