Carlos Santana Finally Starting to Figure it Out

Carlos Santana has had a weird year.   His stats thus far are (.350 OBP, .444 slugging percent), both of which are respectable for a five hitter (where I think he’s best suited, with a healthy Grady batting right after him).  If you really need to know his batting average it’s .242 but that is somewhat overrated as a stat as I’ve said before.  He’s projected to hit 25 homers and drive in 79 which are both respectable numbers, especially considering his RBI totals would be a little higher if his teammates could stay healthy.  That being said, he is batting .282 this month and is slugging a very respectable .505.  Ironically, his slugging percent is up because he’s doing less.

He’s finally starting to take what the pitchers are giving him, at least a little bit.  If there’s a pitch away, Carlos isn’t trying to pull it every time.  The kid has gotta be so used to being able to crush every single ball he wants to that he is seems to be a little behind the learning curve.  He’s has to continue to learn that in the big leagues he can’t hit sit and wait for a pitch to drive every at bat.  Way too many pitchers are way too good.  They won’t give him one.  That’s why he’s got to learn to take a pitch the other way, even if there’s only one strike (or dear I say none).  A single is good.  When that light bulb goes off (or on, whatever it is) in his head, he could be a .290 hitter with 20 homers and 40 doubles.

In Carlos’s first at bat last night, he struck out, and looked like the old Carlos Santana.  Either taking the pitch because it wasn’t perfect, or over swinging and trying to pull it.   In his second, he looked like the same guy; he swung a whiffed pretty badly on two straight pitches.  He was way ahead of them and clearly trying to pull the ball.  On the second swing, he was so far in front of the pitch, he hit it with the top of his bat and it broke it.  It forced Carlos to take a stroll, get a new bat and take a breather.  Right after, he took a fastball and hit a nice liner over the shortstops head (batting left handed).  He didn’t try to kill the ball, it looked like a swing a 60 year old would have taken.  It was a nice soft swing that was enough to get the ball over the shortstop’s head and into center field.  And I loved it.  It was just a single, and it amounted to nothing but it showed growth.  And that’s what Santana’s been doing a little more frequently of late.  Further, in his third at bat, he drilled a pitch to left center (heavy on the center).  His swing however, was a nice smooth swing, that looked more like the swing that landed him a single in the previous bat than it did the swings that preceded the single.  It was pure and simple and it works for him.  Hopefully he can continue to make more swings like last night and continue to improve.  He is an integral part of this team and needs to get better if this team wants to contend for next couple of years.