The little engine that could started to sputter to life as the Crawdads’ offense started to put some runs on the board in the 4th and 6th game of the home opening series against the Jersey Shore BlueClaws. The ‘Dads scored 17 runs across the 6 game series and showcased some of the pure excitement surrounding this team as Tucker Mitchell and Yosy Galan hit the team’s first two home runs of the season with Mitchell’s grand slam in the 4th and Galan’s 2 run shot in the 7th.
Even though the offense did show some life throughout the series, they still got shut out in 2 of the 6 games and only scored 1 run in another 2 games. I started writing this Tuesday night, but held off on finishing it as I wanted to see the rest of the series to see if the offense could wake up at some point, and they sure did. Through 4 games to start the season, the Crawdads had only scored 2 runs and were heavily struggling at the plate. Some of the issues I was noticing, they were able to correct throughout the rest of the series with Jersey Shore and it showed.
The Crawdads seemed to be swinging too freely early in at bats and it led to a lot of quick outs. Some of that is due to opposing pitching pounding the zone (it’s hard to tell for sure as there is no zone on broadcasts and the MiLB app’s pitch tracking is not as accurate as the MLB’s so take them with a grain of salt), it could also be due to an organizational approach that the Rangers have as a whole given how well the Rangers attack pitchers early in counts at the MLB level. It’s hard to know for sure in a small sample size, but the changes from games 1-4 to games 5-9 are fairly evident.
In the first 4 games of the season, the Crawdads were seeing 3.64 pitches per AB, in games 5-9 that number grew to 3.82. While this seems minimal, making opposing pitchers work more opens up more opportunities for your offense. With High-A playing predominantly 6 game series, making the opposing team use more arms and getting to see relievers multiple times in a series can lead to better at bats as hitters are able to see pitchers more often.
The other major issue was 1 pitch at bats, specifically with 2 outs. Through 4 games, the Crawdads had 9, 1 pitch at bats with 2 outs, they were 0-9 in those at bats. In the 5 games since, they have only had 3 more 1 pitch at bats with 2 outs in which they are still hitless, but it shows they have at least made the adjustment to be more selective with 2 outs. They were a collective 4-23 in 1 pitch at bats (.173 AVG) through 4 games, since then they have been 5-17 (.294 AVG) in 1 pitch at bats. The Crawdads’ have not only been more selective, but have had more success in less scenarios. I don’t think the little league approach of “taking until you have a strike” works for professional hitters (especially when I root for Corey Seager who swings at the first pitch more than just about anyone), but there are situations where it pays off to be more selective and the Crawdads have clearly adjusted to being more selective and the positive results showed immediately.
The season certainly started out in a very frustrating fashion, but it looks like the young kids in Hickory are starting to find their groove at the plate 9 games in. That’s even without top prospects Sebastian Walcott, Anthony Gutierrez, and Yeison Morrobel really getting going. Walcott smashed a triple to the wall in the 2nd game of the Friday night double header and went 2-5 today with a double and single, but he’s still hitting .121 on the year with 13 Ks (5 of which being 3 pitch strikeouts). He could be pressing a little too hard to start the year which would be evident by him being over aggressive at the plate, but I fully expect him to get dialed in as the season goes on and hopefully his 2-5 day gets him going.
Hickory is full of top 30 prospects on both sides of the ball and even though they started slow out of the gate, the pitching has been exceptional outside of the 13-0 loss on Saturday night. With a seemingly terrible start to the season with the offense hitting just .162 as a team (last in the South Atlantic League), the Crawdads are only 2.5 games back of the division lead and could easily make that distance up in one series. If the offense can get going to back up the pitching, the Crawdads will certainly be looking at back to back SAL South division titles.
