Hot Streak Related to Benching?
Posted by Amanda Orr, Sat, July 18, 2009 02:00 PM | Comments: 12
Posts, Raising Questions
June 24th was the last game Jimmy Rollins played before being bench by Charlie Manuel. At the time, Rollins was hitting .211 with a .254 on-base percentage and .328 slugging percentage. Despite his magnificent defense, Rollins wasn’t helping team; he was hurting them. Manuel benched him hoping that Rollins would clear his mind and come back fresh.
When Rollins returned on June 30, he went 0-for-5 against the Braves. He followed it up by going 0-for-3 in the next night. It appeared the benching didn’t help Rollins as his average plummeted to .205.
However, since July 2nd, Rollins’ production has increased by hitting .358 (19-for-his-last-53) with one home run. In addition, he has seven multi-hit games in a 13 game span. His numbers raised to .231/.286/.356. They are still bad, but the phrase “as JRoll goes, the Phillies go” is appropriate. After a June swoon, the Phillies are 11-3 in July.
Was Rollins due for hot streak, or is Charlie Manuel a genius by benching Rollins?
Posts: 0 Greg V.
I’m going with Uncle Cholly’s genius on that one. Rollins needed to clear his head and it wasn’t going to happen with him in a magnificant slump like that. So I think the time off helped a bunch. He was overdue for a hot streak. Now he’s back in the game. Sometimes you just have to figure out how you got here.
Posted: 02:02 PM on July 18, 2009
Posts: 0 Philsphan
Eh i don’t know. From what I heard he didn’t watch any film or work on his mechanics. Probably helped somewhat to clear his head but I think he was due. Everyone knew this wouldn’t continue all year.
Posted: 02:15 PM on July 18, 2009
Posts: 0 ryan
no. i think it probably didn’t have much of a factor either way. I guess it could have helped a little bit maybe. But I think sooner or later no matter what Charlie or anybody else did, Jimmy was gonna come around. established major league hitters who’ve been around as long as Jimmy don’t just fall off the cliff and never come back. atleast not in their early 30′s they don’t
Posted: 02:18 PM on July 18, 2009
Posts: 0 ArenaMJ
So much of the game is mental, that this time off was the major effect. Like “Philsphan” said, he didn’t work much on his mechanics aside from occasaional in-game trips to the cages. Getting away from the pressure can do wonders for anyone in any profession, J-Roll is no exception
Posted: 02:22 PM on July 18, 2009
Posts: 0 Bruce
As other posters commented, Rollins is too good a player to continue his slump for long. With his experience plus encouragement and advice on mechanics from hitting coach Milt Thompson and former hitting coach, Charlie Manuel, Rollins shortened his stroke and stay back on pitches and began to see the ball better. It’s really not that complicated and you wonder why certain ballplayers don’t readily accept those kind of tips. It’s probably stubborness to change and Rollins reportedly had it.
Posted: 02:33 PM on July 18, 2009
Posts: 0 Doug D.
The only thing that Jimmy’s resurgence has to do with the benching is that it gave Jimmy some time to re-discover his trigger mechanism, ie., the DOUBLE TOE TAP. If you watch his ABs from early in the year, Jimmy was getting out on his front foot too early. if you watch him now, he’s doing his double toe tap before actually striding into the pitch. It’s keeping him back and allows him to have more time to recognize the pitch. He’s being much more selective as a result…Just so everyone knows, I believe that the problems with most of the guys in the line-up (everyone except Raul and Pedro) originates from them insisiting on swinging at high heat. Jimmy, Shane, Chase, Rhyno, and especially Jayson, do nothing with high fastballs above the belt.
Posted: 02:37 PM on July 18, 2009
Posts: 0 Nationals#1
it wasn’t “genius” to bench rollins, that’s what you do when your players are playing badly. if they’re hurting the team, you bench them. and judging by the fact that rollins didn’t get hot until about 2 weeks after his benching, i don’t see how they’re related. i think what helped him out more was slotting him in the 6-hole for a while and all the times charlie told him not to take bp or work on his swing… it took all the pressure off of him and stopped him from pressing and trying too hard. the most important thing about hitting is to be loose, as charlie always says, and it’s hard to be loose when your average is steadily declining and you’re stressed out and pressing
Posted: 03:47 PM on July 18, 2009
Posts: 0 Andrew
It is very difficult for a player to be as bad as Jimmy was the m onth before the benching. Law of averages at play here. But he had to be benched and any player who is 0 for a month should be benched.
Posted: 04:21 PM on July 18, 2009
Posts: 0 Jeff
The benching had no factor in him hitting. He is a great hitter and he saw somethings through video. You could of benched him for a month and it would make no difference. A great hitter will always hit his average. Before this season is over he will be hitting .280.. THATS A FACT JACK
Posted: 04:42 PM on July 18, 2009
Posts: 0 Griffin
Jimmy had an unbelievably low BABIP (batting average on balls in play) which meant he was extremely unlucky in the first half. Jimmy’s “resurgence” is nothing more than regression to the mean.
Posted: 05:04 PM on July 18, 2009
Posts: 0 Tim Rich
Griffin, in general you are correct that Rollins had a little bit of bad luck in the first half, but he also hit a lot of pop flies. Pop flies, with rare exceptions, are never subject to “bad luck”. They are simply poor hitting. Rollins is now hitting more line drives and ground balls up the middle.
Posted: 06:00 PM on July 18, 2009
Posts: 0 Manny
Cholly is a genius. Fact.
Posted: 06:14 PM on July 18, 2009