Article: How Can Arcia Bust His Epic Slump?

[TheDean]

Both Colabello and Arcia have had their option used for this year, so that wouldn't be a problem. Playing Colabello in right field would be a problem and I do think his 15 minutes of fame are over. I also agree that Arcia seems to have morphed into an "all or nothing at all" swinger, instead of someone capable of hitting .300.

 

I agree. I've been one of CC's biggest fans, but his ceiling is a powerful but streaky, high-quality replacement player who should be a bench bat, DH, or 1B. Although there are varying opinions on Ozzie's ceiling, it's certainly higher than CC's. In my view, you need to keep the best talent on the 25-man, if possible. Only dip into the replacement reserve when you're forced to by injury.

 

That said, I'm not necessarily in agreement with those who say that Arcia needs to play every single game. In a slump like this, maybe he needs a day or two off and get a fresh look, especially if you're facing tough lefties. Parms is the only other RF option, but he's been pretty hot lately, and I think it's worth it to get Arcia's head right and avoid having to make him pack his bags for Rochester.

[TheDean]

If not for options I could see a revolving door for him and Colabello. They gain confidence in AAA and ride it for a while in the bigs. There is the benefit of sending him down. I am in the camp of he swings too hard. His minor league numbers show very high batting average with mid teen home run power. That is the guy I want to see in the majors. 450 foot homers look nice but count for no more than the 380 foot ones. He should do what Cuddyer finally did when he was slumping bad and that is take a lot more pitches. Even if he strikes out never swinging the bat. Right now pitchers only need to throw one strike at most to get him out. Show a willingness to walk and he will start to get better pitches to hit.

 

I like the comparison to Cuddy. I don't like the promotion/demotion idea, but the options shouldn't matter since they've both used theirs for the year, so they can go up and down as much as they'd like.

 

Maybe someone can verify, but I think it's possible that his numbers in the minors (especially below AA) profile differently because he was a very different player in some sense back then. He played all over the OF, including CF, and his bat matched that. As he advanced, I think he gained a lot of weight and morphed into more of a prototypical corner OF power hitter. A bit speculative, but that could have something to do with his struggles if it constituted an appreciable change in approach relatively recently.

[Dantes929]

Fly ball distance does matter. The guys who hit longer fly balls will hit more home runs. Its why a guy like Dozier, sadly, probably won't keep pace with Jose Bautista very long, even though both players have 15 HRs atm.

 

Also Joe Mauer cca. 2009

Agree to disagree. Powerful guys that square up the ball more often hit more homers but anyone that squares it up more often gets more hits. Mauer is a great case. I never expected him to hit homers like 2009 once he left the dome because he was hitting 360 foot fly balls that were barely clearing the fence. If he was hitting those homers 450 feet and batting .200 from swinging so hard I would give him the same recommendation to tone it down. Dozier probably won't keep pace with Bautista and shouldn't try to. Same applies to Arcia. Clearing the fence by 100 feet shouldn't come at the expense of 70 points of batting average.