
Disappointments
The Boston Red Sox handed the first base job to rookie Bobby Dalbec in the hope that he would lead them toward the upper reaches of the AL East.
The Sox are holding to first place and Dalbec is slotted in at first on a daily basis. But Boston has achieved most of its success despite Dalbec, not because of him.
The rookie is batting .206 through his first 32 games with a poor .644 OPS and a team-co-high 38 strikeouts. Between April 24 and May 6, he suffered through a one-for-35 stretch, despite which Boston managed to go 6-4. The Red Sox need more from Dalbec if they are to hold off the charging Yankees.
As a minor league prospect, Gavin Lux was considered untouchable by Dodger management. He’s an MLBer now, and a surprisingly ordinary one. The Dodgers’ regular second baseman, Lux is batting just .235 in his first full season with a .593 OPS.
That’s way below the .702 major league average, and since the defending champs find themselves in third place in their division it’s fair to assign some portion of responsibility for that under-performance to Lux.
The Indians have been willing to part with mound stars of the stripe of Trevor Bauer in part because prospect such as Triston McKenzie were percolating up the ladder. Indeed, coming off a 3.24 ERA in eight 2020 appearances McKenzie’s was a frequent name mentioned as a breakout star in 2021.
To date, McKenzie has been very ordinary. He’s started five games and allowed 13 runs in fewer than 24 innings, a 4.94 ERA.
Control has been a major problem. McKenzie leads the AL in bases on balls issued with 22.
Is Akil Baddoo a find? When the 22-year-old Tiger rookie homered in each of his first two games, some thought so. Two weeks into the season he was hitting .370 with a nifty 1.342 OPS.
Since then Baddoo has done almost nothing. He has a .125 batting average since April 15 with four times as many strikeouts (29) as hits (seven).