So a recent outburst of offensive production by Yuniesky Betancourt has some Royals fans laughing and pointing at us "basement dwellers". But since then, he's sunk back to regular YuniLevels.
His season stats are impressive. Sure, if you look solely at home runs and RBIs (worst stat ever for evaluating individual talent), he seems like he's a very productive player.
But if you look just below the surface of those stats...no, actually if you look just to the right of those stats, you'll see that his OBP is still well below .300, he still swings and misses at 47% of pitches out of the strikezone, and still has a negative UZR at -7. Oh and his OPS is at a strong .714, or in simpler terms, "Eleven-Points-Better-Than-Mitch-Maier". This guy is legit! SUPER LEGIT!
ERRRRRRRR. No he's not. He's still terrible. And don't tell me that I just think he's terrible because I don't "watch the games" or "listen to Ryan Lefebvre's analysis of Yuni". He's terrible. He swings at everything. Heres the messed up part: HE WOULD PROBABLY BE A DAMN GOOD PLAYER IF HE DIDN'T SWING AT EVERY DAMN PITCH!!!
The fact that he swings at so many pitches early in the count and out of the strike zone actually makes him terrible. If he wouldn't swing at those pitches, he would walk more, meaning he would get out less and help the team out more. Also, he would get better pitches to hit, his average would go up, he'd hit for more power and...dare I say it? Or will I get banished back to my mother's basement? HE WOULD WALK MORE.
He's not a good player. He's having an ok season. THAT'S IT. This year doesn't warrant an extension or whatever. Don't fool yourself. On Fescoe's show yesterday, Bob asked George Brett about Betancourt and George started talking about Wilson Betemit. I think that was George's polite way of saying, "I would rather s**t my pants at the Bellagio again than talk about Yuni."
He's a serviceable stopgap for the time being. But don't fool yourself into thinking that he's the future of this team. He's here through next year or until Christian Colon comes up. THAT'S IT.
