WasWatching.com

It's still hard to know what to make of Robbie. Is he a free-swinging power hitter-in-the-making who has yet to develop a consistent power stroke? A singles hitter who sprays the ball to all fields?

Either way, I seriously doubt that he'll ever be great - despite the comps to Rod Carew - if he fails to develop some more plate discipline.

I did look at Carew's stats, though. His first two seasons were pretty weak in terms of OBP, even though he ended up with a career OBP of .390 something. So I guess anything's possible.

I think you're right about hitting in front of slag like Minky. But also that Cano is simply going to have to show some more patience. The word is out: get Cano to two strikes, throw a fastball up and in, and he'll swing through it every time. It's getting a little embarrassing watching such a good hitter swing at pitches over his head. If he doesn't learn how to lay off bad pitches when he gets to two strikes, then he's going to have issues this year.

But here's the thing: every time the Yankees have a young player who does well, people say their success was a fluke. They say that about Wang and they're starting to say it about Cano. Cano, when on, is a scary-good hitter. I don't think it was a fluke, and if I was Torre, I might try to help Cano out by moving him up ahead of Matsui, who looks absolutely moribund right now.

Damon, Bobby, Cano and Matsui (and Minky, it goes without saying) seems to have caught the same slump-bug. Only Giambi and Jeter are hitting right now (even A-Rod has cooled off).

I don't think the stats support that conclusion, Steve. From his baseball reference page, Cano is swinging at 50% of pitches thrown (52% career) and makes contact 86% of the time (87% career). So he's not swinging and missing any more than usual.

He's swinging at the first pitch less this year (32%) than his career overall (37%). Finally, He is still, in general, seeing significantly more pitches per at bat (3.55) than his career rate (3.16), though that is down from when I looked at it a couple of weeks ago.

I really think it's just a slump. Nothing to see here.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/canoro01.shtml

Well, I don't know the actual numbers, but Cano does look like he's chasing a lot. It's a little bit frustrating, knowing that he CAN be a good hitter.

It really is still early though. No need to give up on him yet. It's not like he's hitting (or not hitting) like David Wright. Mind you, I'm not trash talking the Mets or this specific Met in any way, Wright is just on the worst slump I've ever seen.

~~~is swinging at 50% of pitches thrown (52% career) and makes contact 86% of the time (87% career).~~~

Is it about swinging and missing...or, is it about swinging at pitches that should be taken...instead of making contact with them and popping up or grounding out weakly?

Robby has always worried me, because his success is pretty dependant on BABIP luck. In contrast to Wang, who seems to me to be a true outlier, due to the quality and uniqueness of his stuff. Robby looks great when the hits are dropping in, and looks like shit when they aren't, and I haven't seen anything about him that makes me think he can overcome his poor plate discipline. He's not Vlad Guerrero...he's not even Alfonso Soriano.

SteveB.

His high groundball percentage and middle of the pack line drive percentage make his BABIP less luck-based than a guy who hits flies more often.