AJ's batting stroke

[hawkjt]

is normally pretty sweet- always making contact, usually good contact. But he is hitting .194 (9-47) his last 13 games and .216 for August. Now, fatigue has to be a big factor for catchers at this point in the season but AJ just looks very lost up at the plate lately.

He is clearly frustrated evidenced by all the bat throwing ect. but he seems to refuse to take a walk. He is an aggressive hitter by nature but to me he has had a lot of bad at bats lately, almost just swinging at everything to get the hell out of there quicker.

I know that Hawk has said he wishes AJ would sacrifice average for more power like last year but I prefer the high average and less homers like this year. It seems like he is swinging for the fences- trying to pull everything right now.

I know Hawk is his buddy, but I hope he is listening to Walk , not Hawk when it comes to advice for hitting.

Would not mind Sandy out there today,(not happening) just to give him a break - but I would guess he catches tomorrow when MB is on the mound.

C'mon AJ- break out of it today.

[batmanZoSo]

is normally pretty sweet- always making contact, usually good contact. But he is hitting .194 (9-47) his last 13 games and .216 for August. Now, fatigue has to be a big factor for catchers at this point in the season but AJ just looks very lost up at the plate lately.

He is clearly frustrated evidenced by all the bat throwing ect. but he seems to refuse to take a walk. He is an aggressive hitter by nature but to me he has had a lot of bad at bats lately, almost just swinging at everything to get the hell out of there quicker.

I know that Hawk has said he wishes AJ would sacrifice average for more power like last year but I prefer the high average and less homers like this year. It seems like he is swinging for the fences- trying to pull everything right now.

I know Hawk is his buddy, but I hope he is listening to Walk , not Hawk when it comes to advice for hitting.

Would not mind Sandy out there today,(not happening) just to give him a break - but I would guess he catches tomorrow when MB is on the mound.

C'mon AJ- break out of it today.

That approach was good for this team last year. We needed some semblance of a power threat from the left side and AJ provided that somewhat. However, this year for very obvious reasons, we're not lacking power from the left side. I'll take the .300 with 10 homers rather than .250 with 20.

He's just in a funk.

[samram]

One thing that has hurt AJ is that neither backup catcher has been any good and he hasn't been able to take many days off. Widger was decent enough last year that he could play three or four times in a two week period. This year, Ozzie hasn't been able to afford to take AJ's bat out of the lineup more than once a week.

[cburns]

If I remember correctly, AJ's career batting average is around .290, so I'm not surprised his average has taken a dip.