As a fan, streaky hitters are one of the most aggravating facets of baseball. It seems inexplicable how a guy can carry a team one month and be an anchor the next. Nick Swisher, right now, is an absolute anchor. It’s come to the point where the Angels will walk every hitter before him to get to Slumpy McSwingsandmissesalot. Swish is no longer his nickname, but the sound the ball makes as it passes by his bat. Yankee fans have had to deal with this in the past, of course, with Bernie Williams, but that’s not much of a consolation. Right now, he’s absolutely killing us, while tomorrow, we could be tossing laurels at him.
How streaky is this guy? How quickly can he flip ends? Just look at his first two months. Keep in mind that the month-by-month stats, if anything, wind up smoothing out the bumps, as a hot streak in the beginning of one month could ameliorate the slump at the end. Even so, the monthly stats show an absurd amount of variance between them. Streaky? Just look at his first two months: April OPS: 1.144. May OPS: .586!!! What the heck happened in May? Did they start putting kryptonite into the balls? His next several months are like a roller coaser ride: .885, .777, .878, .949, .741 and, of course, a playoff OPS of .350 (yech!).
Is this season representative of Swisher’s streakiness? You bet it is. Check out his 2008 monthly stats: .701, .547, 1.032, .676, .876, .546. Contrast these numbers to Derek Jeter’s stats this year: .807, .870, .808, .902, .970, .824. No month has more than .150 difference between it and the next. Swisher, on the other hand, has months that vary more than .600 points!! Reaching further back, Nick has always had multiple months in the .500 & .600 ranges and other months above 1.000. Even the notoriously slow starting Bernie Williams would rarely have any months below .800 in his prime years.
When will he snap out of his funk? It’s impossible to tell. He has shown the ability to turn things around very, very quickly, but the nature of the postseason might make it more difficult for him to accomplish this. As one of the most patient hitters in all of baseball, he is completely incapable of expanding his hitting zone with any success. The stress of the playoffs sometimes pushes players to attempt to do more than they can and this might be part of what is maintaining Nick’s current run of bad form. Once he starts trying to do too much, he’s completely helpless against the very good hurlers the Angels have. He has to stay within himself and not press. If he can do that, he still has a chance to be a big contributor.
Rumors are now flying (see here) that Swisher could or should be benched. If not benched, he may also be moved down in the order in favor of the streaking Melky Cabrera. Nick maintains that, “It takes one swing to get back on track… It’s one of those things where you want to do well, but it just hasn’t happened. Sometime it’s going to happen.” What do you guys think? Should he sit in favor of Gardner? Should he be moved down in the order, or should Joe just sit tight and hope that the slump is about to end?
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10 Responses to Nick Swisher = Streaky = Benched?
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TIQ IQ
I think it’s just bad luck for Swisher in that the Yankees are facing a team he has never hit well. All of the starters have good numbers against them. His best bet is against Joe Saunders, and even those numbers aren’t particularly strong.
“Bench Swisher for Brett!”
This is what I would like to say but, Swisher is a very good hitter when not in the fix he is in now. I have never been able to understand players that have long slumps. I do understand body language (as well as most lay people). Watching his actions in the box, it seems to me he is wound up tighter then a drum skin.
Come on Swisher, snap out of it.
I would move him down in the order first. Next move is to the bench.
He definitely look anxious up there, OR. I think the Yankees are just going to have to stick with him and play through it.
I also read that Girardi would have used J-Hair over Swisher, too, not Brett, which would have been awful.
I don’t get it. I feel like Gardner’s talents are somewhat underappreciated by JoeG of late.
Yea, I would rather see Gardner than J-Hair, but I guess Girardi was going off of the splits (lefty-lefty vs. righty-lefty).
I agree with that assessment, using Brett for a pinch runner only, is somewhat of a waste. Let him play the whole game, ok he doesn’t have the power of the other guys but, given his avg and OBP he should get on base a couple times. He is a good hitter WRISP, and pitchers don’t like to pitch to guys with his speed. If he is on base when Jeter comes up, you know they are going to throw fastballs to Jeter.
Why not use Swisher as the DH, Matsui hasn’t done much in the last few games (I think?). Matsui is rolling over on the pitches, pulling everything to 2nd or 1st…lately anyhow.
I like the things that Brett brings to the table, I wish he had more power!
If you bench Swisher now, might as well trade him during the off season.He won’t recover and you’ll never have confidence in him again.He’s a quirky emotional guy.Like A-Rod, all of a sudden he can be in a different frame of mind and carry you for a week.He did it in April.
That last at-bat was better.Just needs to stop trying to pull everything.
meh – that stuff is overrated. He’s not quirky, emotional like A-Rod, he’s more of a happy-go-lucky clown of a guy. You do what you have to do to win the World Series – you shouldn’t be worried about hurting someone’s feelings or how someone will react next year.
you dance with the gal you brought to the dance, leave the batting order alone, calm and consistency are the best things a manager can have for his players, they got you here and they deserve your support.