New York Mets outfielder Michael Conforto has not shown the ability to hit left-handed pitching or the curve-ball. Until that happens, expectations need to be lowered for the young slugger.
Playing professional baseball in New York City has to be one of the most love/hate relationships there is. A month or two of success at the plate, and you can be compared to the next Bryce Harper. A month or two of slumping, and maybe you just aren’t that good? This is what young outfielder, Michael Conforto, has been going through with the New York Mets in 2016.
A graphic that was put up in late April by SNY raised a few eyebrows:
The one categorical variable that was not mentioned in this graphic was age. Both Mike Trout, and Bryce Harper were teenagers when they entered the league–Conforto was twenty-two. Nothing should be taken away from the numbers that he put up over his first 77 games of his career, but comparing him to Trout and Harper wasn’t fair to the former first round pick out of Oregon State.
"“I’m just getting away from my approach, going out of the zone,” Conforto said last week after going 0-for-6 with four strikeouts in a 13-inning loss to the White Sox. “You’re not going to have success that way so you’ve just got to get back to what was working and keep working hard. I think I am pressing a little bit and I need to take a deep breath and go back to what was working,” he said. “That starts with my work and feeling confident.”"
On April 30, the day that this graphic was shown, Conforto was hitting .365 .442 .676. Since then, his numbers have plummeted to .244 .317 .461. Obviously, this graphic has had nothing to do with Michael Conforto slumping, but the expectations for a platoon left fielder were certainly too high.
If you don’t agree that Conforto is nothing more than a platoon player, then look at his splits and number of at-bats vs. left-handed pitching last season and so far this season:
- 2015 vs LHP: .214 .267 .214 in 14 AB’s
- 2016 vs LHP: .098 .136 .098 in 41 AB’s
Compare these numbers to Bryce Harper’s vs left-handed pitching over the last three years and it’s night and day. Bryce is hitting .268 .373 .442 in 380 at-bats since 2013 vs. LHP. Last year’s MVP was never once thought of as a platoon player. Lets look at Mike Trouts splits vs. right-handed pitching since he is a right-handed batter. Trout is hitting .304 .398 .578 vs righties over the last three seasons.
What could be the problem with the young slugger other than his deficiencies against left-handed pitching? Per BrooksBaseball, he can’t hit the curve-ball.
Conforto has been thrown 244 curve-ball’s since being called up last July, and he hasn’t been able to handle any of them. He has one single, one home run, and twenty strikeouts against the hook. That’s good for a .057 average and a .143 slugging percentage.
Next: Yordano Ventura Gets Needed Wakeup Call
Until Michael Conforto learns how to hit left-handed pitching and the curve-ball, expectations need to be lowered. For now, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout are in a league of their own and it could stay that way for a while.