The Shortstop Story

Trevor Story appears to have won the Rockies shortstop job. He made an adjustment in 2014 that paid off:

The scouting line on the 6-foot-1, 180-pound Story at the time said he had plenty of pop in his bat but didn’t make enough contact and was a pull hitter.

But in 2014, he dumped 40 strikeouts off his ledger and began spraying the ball around — and his on-base-percentage jumped 62 points.

“His approach is to the big part of the field, an opposite-field approach,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. “I haven’t seen him pull a lot of balls this spring. That’s a good sign. Early on, some of the reports from his minor-league days were he got pull-happy. But those days are gone.”

Coors Field helps hitters in two ways. Due the altitude, the ball carries better. To counter that, the outfield is huge, giving fielders more ground to cover. That means more balls can drop in for hits as well. Someone who makes contact can do very well there. Here’s what the Rockies look like with a league average Story in the lineup. The Rockies hope that represents a floor for their offense.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/1MKmWcT