Reds March/April 2024 Thread

[CJD]

(04-22-2024, 10:14 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Four games at home vs. Phillies, oh boy. They're a good team with great pitching. We took a series against them already, I'm hoping we can at least split with them now. Greene worries me tonight to say the least.

And what's up with Benson? 30 strike outs already (leading the team) and batting .186 I've been pulling for Benson to make it. Kind of under the radar player who has shown potential. It' early still but with Friedl and McClain out it's his chance to shine now.

It would be great to head into the road trip to end the month with 14 W's. Come on Reds

Benson has been a cold streak for the last few weeks. After starting with a super solid line of .257/.333/.629/.962 in the first 10 games of the season (9 for 35), he has gone 4 for 35 in the last 10 games with 16 strike outs. He's still hitting the ball hard (15% barrel percentage vs MLB average of 6.9%, sweet spot % of 40% vs MLB average of 33.1%, hard hit % of 47.5% vs MLB average of 36.3%, average exit velocity of 90.5 mph vs league average of 88.4), which suggests he is just getting a little unlucky at the moment.

In the game against the Angels on Friday, he had 2 fielded outs that were hit 99.0 and 96.9 mph, going 389 and 373 ft, respectively. Looking at his statcast game log, I also see a 100.6 mph groundout, a 96.8 mph flyout (379 ft), a 103.2 mph groundout, and a 102.9 mph flyout (356 ft) all within that 10 game skid. 

As it gets warmer, those 380 ft fly outs will become 400 ft homeruns.

His BABIP is just .289 right now, which is below average league wide (BABIP league wide is typically around .300), so that's another indication that it may just be bad luck.

I think he's likely to average out as time goes on.