The media finally has noticed that Casey is Hal Morris-lite:
Actually Casey’s double in Friday night’s 4-3 victory over Arizona was his first since June 3. It was only his third extra-base hit in 126 plate appearances.
Casey hasn’t been slumping. He went into Saturday’s game hitting .313 overall and .347 in his last 42 games.
But his power numbers are off.
He went into Saturday’s game, which was five games past the halfway point in the season, with 19 doubles and three home runs. Last year, he had 44 doubles and 24 home runs.
Fay finally noticed something that bloggers and posters to the Reds list have known for months, his power numbers stink.
But the scary thing is, the Reds and Casey don’t seem to see it as a big problem.
Hitting coach Chris Chambliss said Casey needs to get his legs into his swing more.
“We’ve worked in the cage on him driving off his back leg,” Chambliss said.
But neither Chambliss nor Casey wants to tinker too much.
“It’s a Catch-22,” Casey said. “I feel great at the plate. I’m hitting the ball hard. I’m just not hitting any gappers. I’ve tried to give it a little extra in a couple of games, and I ended up going 0-for-4.”
Said Chambliss: “When a guy’s hitting .313 you don’t want to change too much. Everyone would like 40 home runs, but you can’t always have that.”
You know, sometimes Chambliss sounds like he undertands hitting, then he says stuff like what he says above.
As for the DPs…
Casey has hit into 20 double plays, most in the majors. He’s on pace to break Jim Rice’s big-league record of 36, set in 1984.
“As long as I’m hitting the ball hard, I’ll be OK,” Casey said. “I feel like I’m doing that.”
Ugh, Sean, if you were hitting the ball “hard”, you wouldn’t go more than a month between doubles.
This is the attitude of a “team guy”?
And notice, no mention anywhere of moving Casey out of the #3 spot.
Think ‘roids