Robbie Cano vs. sliders

September 28, 2010 by Mike Axisa 8 Comments

The maturation of Robbie Cano into a legitimate MVP candidate has certainly been one of the most exciting parts of the 2010 season, and FanGraphs’ Albert Lyu took a look at why it’s happening. Despite being just one walk shy of tying his free pass total from 2008 and 2009 combined, Cano is actually swinging at more pitches both in and out of the strike zone this season, which caught me by surprise. He’s swinging and missing a bit more often, but the root of his success comes from his ability to hit the slider. By working deeper counts, Cano has gotten pitchers to go to their breaking stuff more often, and he’s simply murdering the soft stuff this season. Make sure you check it out, there are colorful graphs. And it’s interesting.

Sal

I’ve loved Cano since he stepped on the field. I also thought Jerry Kenny would become a star someday “Miky River type”, so my judgement isn’t 100%. But the one thing the worries me about Cano of late is he’s not going to left feild as much in the 2nd half of the years. And when he does go to left its a fly ball, not the line drives like the 1st half.

I don’t know how to read or where to find the hit charts, so if one of you Stat geeks could check it out and let me know it i’m right on this?

thanks
- larryf
  
  Jerry kenny? Wow. Most of the younger fans won’t remember that highly touted disappointing Yankee infielder. He goes back to the Horace Clark era. Did he wear #2?
  
  Is Cano best suited batting 5th in this lineup? What about moving him around when it’s a lefty vs a righty pitcher?
  
  He would seem to come up quite a bit with no one on batting after Tex and Alex and there 60-70 HR’s combined. Can we get more out of him than we have?
  - Sal
    
    Yes Jerry Kenny was #2 and I remember Horace Clark the Stick leading in DP’s made. Of couse at the time I was 10ish and didn’t know it was because the yankees pitching was so so so bad that everytime a grpund ball was it the other team had a man on 1st lol
vin

Mike, I remember you were doing a live chat during a ST game this season. Cano was raking, and I asked if I was the only person who thought he would finish in the top 10 of the MVP voting. You said that, yes, I was probably the only person who thought that.

I’ve been waiting about 4 months to throw that back at you.
- http://twitter.com/iiKeane JobaWockeeZ
  
  Heh now to bring this old one meme back up…pics or GTFO.
  - vin
    
    I’ve considered going back to find it. Just been a bit too busy for that. It would take hours to scroll through the chats… not sure if a search would work.
    - vin
      
      Ha… found it.
      
      From the Mar. 5 chat:
      
      1:32 [Comment From vin: ]
      Am I the only one expecting a top-10 MVP year for Cano?
      
      Friday March 5, 2010 1:32 vin
      1:32 Probably.
      
      http://riveraveblues.com/2010/...../#comments
      
      I really need to get back to work now.
      - http://twitter.com/iiKeane JobaWockeeZ
        
        Haha well I give props.