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Had a chance in the 8th, but the GIDP snuffed it out. Easy to second guess, but probably should have put on some sort of baserunning play with runners at 1B and 2B and 0 outs.
The Reds were down to their last strike in the bottom of the 9th against Detroit. Steer singles and Lowe homers. 9-8 Reds your unhappy final.
Cubs down to the Doyers. 4-0 in the 5th.
Walker seems to be coming back to earth in a hurry.
He adjusted and now the league is adjusting
Can he adjust to the adjustments??
We shall see.
Since this, Walker has 3 hits in his last 18 plate appearances. He’s walked twice, but he’s also struck out 44.4% of the time.
It’s obviously the slider/sweeper stuff. It’s not mechanical by any stretch. Again, plenty of time to work it out. But this is the test we want to see https://t.co/XbRMwUJELf— Kyle Reis, 58% Neanderthal (@kyler416) April 25, 2026
Winn has sure come on. He, Burly, and Herrera are all at wRC+ of 120 or 121. Church might be righting the ship? 9 of his last 24, 3 walks, 6 K’s. Graceffo’s only given up 5 hits in 13.2 ip this year. Soriano has only given up 4 in 10.1. Too many walks, but perhaps they can be the folks who supplement O’Brien and Romero. Pallante looked different to me last night with the K pitches. Perhaps Dobbins flips with Leahy and the rotation is solid. There are some encouraging signs they could make the season interesting, especially if Noot really does come back in a month and looks like the good Noot.
But watching to see how quickly Walker can get back on track does seem the key for whether they have a centerpiece hitter.
Edit: If the bench right now is Pozo, Urias, Fermin, and Saggese, they are a combined -0.6 fWAR, with none in positive territory. Oof.
I think it takes pitchers a little while to get dialed in. Walker hasn’t hit a homer since the 13th, which tells me he isn’t seeing meatballs like he probably was the first couple weeks of the season. Maybe that’s why he is chasing more. If he can stay off the faders that drift outside, the more closed stance should help with coverage of the outer half, but only if he lets it get deep so he doesn’t get it off the end of the bat. He was doing that earlier. I’m not sure if he was delaying his swing decision or if he was able to trail the bat head, but either approach would work to let the ball come and get the sweet spot on it. It has to be tough trying to develop those bat control skills at the MLB level when he came up with a repeatable swing biometrically optimized to blast meatballs. I have to admit being impressed with his effort to get better both at the plate and in the field. He would have benefitted from a different experience and handling coming up.
Tough to lose those one-run games. Yeah, Walker is back to struggling, biting on the low and outside pitch too often and not squaring up pitches in the zone.
Cubs are on a roll and look to be the early division favorites. Pirates and Reds are improved. Tough division.
To me, JJ is looking more like a potential solid performer and less like a potential standout. Obviously, its early and no telling how his career will go. But for now, his batting line is steadily settling from the lofty start and he is less of a dynamic presence leading off than it looked like he would be. For now.
No idea how you define “dynamic presence”, but I looked at the data. Wetherholt is getting on base at a higher rate lately in his whopping 25 career games played.
As far as his batting line supposedly “steadily settling”, if you’d asserted that a week or 10 days ago, the data would have supported you. That is no longer the case, however.
Here is his season to date line at three consistent points, after each third of his games:
Through 8 games: .276/.371/.379/.751
Through 16 games: .213/.329/.279/.607
Through 25 games (current): .220/.360/.341/.700Now, let’s look at these three blocks of games on their own:
Games 1-8: .276/.371/.379/.751
Games 9-16: .156/.289/.188/.477
Games 17-25: .233/.415/.467/.833Yes, he slumped badly in his middle week-plus of his three-week-plus career. But that is old news.
Unless one is fixated on BA instead of OBP, despite the latter being his primary job, he is clearly improving. And that doesn’t include his higher slugging and OPS, as well.
Among all qualified MLB leadoff hitters, Wetherholt is currently fourth in OBP, just ahead of Shohei Ohtani.
What were your expectations for his first 25 career games?
I agree OBP is the most important for JJ. I don’t think he will keep it .140 above his BA for long though. I also thought he would run more.
I do notice that his BABip is quite low, well below league average. Not sure if it is bad luck or weak contact. Another thing to note is his OBP exceeds his SLG. If that persists, I expect the org to try fixing it, with uncertain results. I recognize that the two homer game vs Cleveland on the 14th upped his SLG, but besides that he has had two extra base hits all month and his SLG is settling.
Its early, like I said, I am just noting what it looks like to me as of now. I feel like there is a little more cause for concern than reason for optimism.
Excluding good games to support one’s case is weak sauce, especially when he only has 25 games played in total. Shall we exclude one bad game for each good one?
Many folks might think an unusually low BABIP could right itself over time with a higher BA. Unless you are reaching for negatives, of course. His BABIP in the minors was consistently above .330. That it is only .254 now suggests improvement is coming.
Last year, he stole one base about every five games. This year, he is stealing one every six games. Not much difference. And it is only normal he could be more careful early while learning a whole new set of pitchers at a higher level.
And expecting the organization will screw him up in the future is grasping for straws, IMO.
I think your initial expectations are too high, so we will have to agree to disagree. In my view, and the data supports it, he is doing ok so far and is trending up again. What might or might not happen later is anyone’s guess.
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