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| Hamilton still looking for power. Photo Credit: Bob Levey/Getty Images |
The Angels have continued to surge their way back to a tie atop the AL West with the Athletics but for all the success they have had so far this season, Los Angeles is still waiting on the power to come back into Josh Hamilton’s bat & start hitting like the slugger he use to be with the Texas Rangers. Angels Manager Mike Scioscia recently made his feelings known on Josh Hamilton & his lack of power to the press.
By: Michael Hanley
“Josh is not the same that we saw when we were looking at the other dugout,” Scioscia said. “He's not in the batter's box with the confidence we know he has. He's not attacking the ball like he can. He's working hard to try to find it …but we need him to do what he's capable of doing, or close to that.”
There has been a myriad of injuries that unfortunately Hamilton has suffered since he came to Anaheim that has slowed down his production. Even more troubling though is when he has been healthy, he has just been another bat in the Angels lineup, not a feared slugger that opposing pitchers would be happy to just intentionally walk rather than even throw one pitch to and risk getting burned.
Now a days, Hamilton is a hitter who goes after bad pitches, is caught guessing wrong on the pitch selection in certain at bats and strikes out at a high rate. To the credit of the Angels, they have not let Hamilton’s lack of power affect their ability to generate consistent offense from game to game.
Though Hamilton is having a solid season with a .266 batting average, 8 home runs and 35 RBIs, that is not the type of production Los Angeles was looking for when they signed him to that monster free agent contract of five years, $125 million dollars before last season began. They were hoping to add another big power slugger to compliment Pujols in the middle of that order and have those two form a dynamic duo that could push the Angels to allot of victories just on their bats alone. That has and looks like that will never come to fruition especially with Hamilton now in his 30s,not as quick with his wrists when it comes to his ability to turn on pitch & the effect of past injuries all coming to ahead.
The future for Josh Hamilton with the Angels looks murky at best with a few more years and a ton of money left on that contract Los Angeles owes him still. He might have to face coming to the realization that his approach at the plate cannot continue to be all of nothing like it was back in his days with Texas when he could get to some pitches quicker. He might have to become a player who focuses on just hitting line drives and spraying the ball to all fields.
Yes home runs are nice when they come, and he will hit some more going forward, but singles and doubles help the team’s cause immensely as well. If he could become that type of hitter on a consistent basis with being in that loaded lineup with Pujols, Trout in the middle of it, the Angels offense would be taken to a whole new level and be that much more difficult for opponents to face and get through.
There comes a time in every baseball player’s career that they must come to grips with that they are not the player they once were you came onto the scene and made an instant impact right away on the team. They now must learn to reinvent themselves in a way to keep pitchers on their toes and be able to still contribute to the team they are on in a meaningful and productive way. Josh Hamilton seems like he has reached that point and is still trying to be his old self, but change will be necessary for him if he is to have a longer and more fruitful second half of his career.
Follow me on Twitter at: @Magic20099
After his club was victorious over fellow AL West foe Texas, Scioscia stated his frustration with Josh Hamilton's lack of success overall at the plate for his ball club this season:
There has been a myriad of injuries that unfortunately Hamilton has suffered since he came to Anaheim that has slowed down his production. Even more troubling though is when he has been healthy, he has just been another bat in the Angels lineup, not a feared slugger that opposing pitchers would be happy to just intentionally walk rather than even throw one pitch to and risk getting burned.
Now a days, Hamilton is a hitter who goes after bad pitches, is caught guessing wrong on the pitch selection in certain at bats and strikes out at a high rate. To the credit of the Angels, they have not let Hamilton’s lack of power affect their ability to generate consistent offense from game to game.
Though Hamilton is having a solid season with a .266 batting average, 8 home runs and 35 RBIs, that is not the type of production Los Angeles was looking for when they signed him to that monster free agent contract of five years, $125 million dollars before last season began. They were hoping to add another big power slugger to compliment Pujols in the middle of that order and have those two form a dynamic duo that could push the Angels to allot of victories just on their bats alone. That has and looks like that will never come to fruition especially with Hamilton now in his 30s,not as quick with his wrists when it comes to his ability to turn on pitch & the effect of past injuries all coming to ahead.
The future for Josh Hamilton with the Angels looks murky at best with a few more years and a ton of money left on that contract Los Angeles owes him still. He might have to face coming to the realization that his approach at the plate cannot continue to be all of nothing like it was back in his days with Texas when he could get to some pitches quicker. He might have to become a player who focuses on just hitting line drives and spraying the ball to all fields.
Yes home runs are nice when they come, and he will hit some more going forward, but singles and doubles help the team’s cause immensely as well. If he could become that type of hitter on a consistent basis with being in that loaded lineup with Pujols, Trout in the middle of it, the Angels offense would be taken to a whole new level and be that much more difficult for opponents to face and get through.
There comes a time in every baseball player’s career that they must come to grips with that they are not the player they once were you came onto the scene and made an instant impact right away on the team. They now must learn to reinvent themselves in a way to keep pitchers on their toes and be able to still contribute to the team they are on in a meaningful and productive way. Josh Hamilton seems like he has reached that point and is still trying to be his old self, but change will be necessary for him if he is to have a longer and more fruitful second half of his career.
Follow me on Twitter at: @Magic20099
