Quote:
Originally Posted by Balticfox
And not to swing at the ball at all if it's not in the strike zone.
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I've watched every single inning the Reds have played. Elly's problem is definitely not swinging at balls. If anything, it's laying off close pitches as umps consistently ring him up looking on pitches that were balls, or on the edges. He was 236th in chase rate at 26.9% out of 584 hitters. That puts him firmly in the top half of the league. Frankly, his biggest problem is missing pitches he should hit. He swings and misses on center cut fastballs early in the count far too often. If he starts obliterating those pitches, he won't have to deal with the borderline pitches later in the count.
And as for his defense, he had 15 outs above average, which was 4th best for a shortstop in all of major leagues. It was pointed out above, that his fielding percentage is lower because of a lot of errors on routine plays, but his ability to make plays that no one else can more than makes up for the errors. His OOA already puts him in gold glove conversation. If he cuts down on errors, his defense could be legendary.