It is almost unbelievable that this team would be leading the division if they could figure out to not be an unwashed butt against the Mariners.
The Cam robbery of the HR is why he will get a gold glove one day, he might suck at challenges and hasn't lived up to the offense, yet he is a dam good fielder. Spaghetti, did you just become the Ace of this team while Hunter is out.........................**chef`s kiss**
Cam is elite defensively. He also has the ability to be a very good bat because he has elite bat speed and sees the ball pretty well. His issue is that he doesn't elevate the ball which wasn't fixed in the off season and he's trying to do it in the season while games are on the line.
Not this season based on his ABS challenges. his launch angle is improving compare to last year. If my eyesight serves me correctly, I think he switched his batting stance again compare to beginning of this season.
People say "fix the launch angle" like it's an easy thing to accomplish. Some players are just low angle hitters their entire careers. It's not a given that he ever "corrects" it. Honestly, I think it would be easier for him to work on it at AAA. It's like saying a pitcher would be really good if he could control the walks. Yeah, sure. But easier said than done.
He’s got way more issues than just launch angle. His whiff% and K% are bad and his chase rate is below league average. Once again this year can’t hit a slider or cutter.
It feels a bit like the baseball version of , "if only Amen could develop a 3 point shot". Some can, some can't or don't. Cam is great at defense and has a bad bat. Might it get better? He's young, certainly possible. Haven't seen much year-to-year progress yet.
No one should really be hitting sliders. The key is to not swing at them. It's gone from 9 to 10 degrees. Yordan's launch angle is almost 20 degrees. Cam's bat speed is the 6th highest in the majors and is similar to Kyle Schwarber who has an even higher whiff and K rate. Cam would hitting a ton of home runs if he could lift the ball even at the MLB average.
Jordan Walker on the Cardinals is a good example of a young talented player needing enough time and reps for everything to click. He was unplayable the last 2 seasons and now he's a superstar, seemingly overnight. Don't be surprised if Cam follows the same trajectory next season.
Yeah, unless there’s a significant improvement in his bat, they need to see if he’s capable of playing CF. If he can play really good defense there, it significantly lowers the bar for how good his bat has to become.
Cam is hitting .171 against sliders for his career. He has seen more sliders than any other pitch in his career. So yes, part of it is he is chasing them, but he’s not even hitting the ones that are mistakes. He’s also hitting .171 against cutters for his career so clearly he has an issue with pitches that break away from him. Either way, they will keep throwing them when he chases at the rate he does against them. I think we would all agree that Pena has had a weakness with sliders over the years. He is hitting .242 against them for his career and has hit plenty of homers when they do hang them.
Could happen. Of course, Walker was the #4 prospect at one point in MLB and Cam rose as high as #55. Walker has had like 2700 ABs between the majors and minors while Cam has had about 800, almost all in the majors, since he never got the opportunity to develop in the minors past A+ ball. So at Walker's pace he might need much longer than next year to start producing. Cam could also go the way of the dozens of highly touted prospects who don't ever find their footing in the majors. Walker's story is rare, far from the norm.
I think he will develop better in the majors. He's getting the reps. There is nothing about the minors that will help him other than the at bats don't mean as much. I would have no issue sending him down if we had better options, but his defense and crazy bat speed makes him valuable. He was a 2 WAR last season and he's tracking to be just above that this season. He's a major league player at this point, but he could be an MVP candidate if he fixed his swing. I think everyone is really worried that he won't figure it out until his arbitration years and we won't have many prime seasons.
@Htown Stros @rockbox @SamCassell I like the dialogue y'all are having about smith. I have only been able to watch the highlights , so it's tough to get a sense of how his approach actually works . But , on the surface the stats are OK and point towards improvement in year 2, which is good. His K is down about a half percent and his walk rate is up about 1 percent . If he could continue that growth I've the next 1/3 of the year then that would be huge . It's up to the astros coaching staff and Cam , as well as luck too He has hit some of the furthest home runs of the year on a team that has yordan. Off topic , but so has Brice M. Anyways , with Cam , the focus needs to be still what pitches to swing at and when to not swing . He has a decent contact tool and his hard hit percentage has been up this year too . That's actually also a big development. It's up like 6 percent , converted from med percent. His barrels are up rate wise . He's getting into more balls and hitting more up the center . His home runs are up and so are his pop ups . So it does.look like he is trying to launch the ball more . I think that has probably stagnated some of his contact outcomes and led to a stagnation of the K rate , but again .. this is just a cursory look. The main issue last year as I saw it was that he got tired . His power zapped , and the league adjusted . Cam needs to be rested a bit more . He can use some of the time in the cage to prepare for specific situations and hope to get a bit luckier . He's a stud in the field , but I feel like a day off every now and then would greatly benefit him . He should be a 15-20 hr/ sb guy this year , with hopes of being 25/25 next year . He really just needs to continue to work on his on base skills . That will dictate what pitches he sees and give him more opportunities to deal damage . Dedicate 80 percent of time to pitch recognition and swing decision and then 20 to launch angle. I like his confidence with ABS and it shows a clear individual understanding that challenges can be nothing but good . However given the team doesn't have unlimited challenges it would maybe be better to have a different team strategy , cough espada . Just keep getting better at that . The launch angle will come . I've got no problem if he smashes singles off the Crawford boxes , line drives up the middle , hr to opposite field, deep sac flys to center . He can already do all of that. The rest is statistical fluff. Just keep walking more and striking out less. Harder contact is better even if it means you sometimes don't get on base with your speed. If cam can grow a net 4% in K% and BB % this year that would be a pretty good arrow in the positive direction. I haven't run a hypothesis test of anything , but that's good enough to not be a fluke . And if you get it year over year he will be a true stud sooner than later . Final thoughts have we looked itno whether cam can play catcher ? Just a thought
A launch angle of 10 or less usually indicates that you aren't a major league player. The only reason he contributes at all is because he can hit the snot out of the ball. The top hitters have launch angles around 20 degrees.
