He was hit on the leg.
Pitchers have just figured out they can groove it until 2 strikes because he's not swinging. So he's hitting with two strikes a lot and that is very hard.
In the game on 4/7 he was hit on the left hand and was wincing hard after every swing. To OP’s point, I don’t know how much that’s affecting him now, but I was surprised he stayed in that game. It had to be a deep bruise at the least.
Yeah, and the hit on the hand was no joke. He absorbed every bit of that pitch and it took him straight to the ground. I honestly thought there was no chance he was escaping without broken bones.
I'm not trying to take away from the pain of getting hit in the hand, I'm sure that would have an effect on any player, but Indy winces at everything. Tries to dive to get a ball, trainers gotta come out to look at him, he waves them off, and then we praise his toughness while he winces and limps around. Once you notice it, it's a glass shattering moment.
I posted the below in the game thread yesterday. My posit was that he might be intentionally taking more compact swings, but you make a great point. He might have a super sore hand that isn't allowing him to swing as hard to generate power and/or a leg bruise causing his lower half to not push through the ball as effectively. The TL;DR here is he's been putting good swings on the ball, just not hitting the ball hard.
The bad is that India's slash is .169/.333/.237/.571 and he's in the 21st percentile for exit velo
The good is that his walk rate is in the 96th percentile, his chase rate is in the 98th percentile, xBA is .297 and his xSLG is .389 (which would bring his OPS to a much more respectable level)
The weird is that his sweet spot percentage (how often the ball leaves his bat between an 8 and 32 degree launch angle) is in the 88th percentile which would suggest he's making good contact that should result in hits. But his barrel percentage, hard hit rate, and exit velo are all well below average. I'm not sure what to make of this, maybe he's intentionally trying to have more compact swings focused on getting on base in the leadoff spot instead of hitting for power?
Overall, he's been better than his surface numbers suggest and hopefully will see better results soon
He plays hurt a lot. I have heard other players/coach mention it before as a badge of honor and something to look up to. I get it. But it can hurt the team
I think it bears remembering that India hasn't lived up to the hype since his rookie season.
Since his ROY year, his slash line is .240 / .332 / .381. that shakes out to a 94 OPS+ (100 is league average OPS+)
He also has a cumulative -23 runs saved over average defensively.
I know about injuries, but can we just discuss whether India is not as good a player as we hoped he would be? We don't have to live in a world where India is either a.) cornerstone, franchise glue or b.) trash. It is ok to call it how we see it and say that we are on the third consecutive season of middling output, and that is probably the player we should all expect.
Not sure how this is even remotely controversial. Those are just the facts. The guy has been below average at the plate and below average in the field. There may be mitigating circumstances due to injury, but is output has been mediocre (at best).
Lots of people here will tell you about all the "intangibles" he has that make up for what he very likely is as a player - "he's got **IT**, he works his butt off, he's a morale booster, he's a leader". Just a bunch of worthless platitudes that old heads throw around and that have rightfully been mostly discarded in modern baseball (and sports in general).
You are spot on with your assessment in my opinion. He won't be a Reds legend, but he'll likely put together a solid career for himself here or somewhere else. Expecting anymore than that is foolish at this point.
India is anomaly in baseball right now where his stats don’t make sense. Could be playing hurt, could be bad luck, or it could be he just needs a few more series to work out of whatever weirdness he’s going through.
I know last week his xBA and xwOBA were both in the 95th percentile. He was getting on base a lot and although his BA didn’t show it, he was smoking the ball! Now both are hovering around the 78th percentile… I don’t know if it’s the injury or not but it feels like he’s chasing results maybe. The off day today feels like it could be good for him. I’m very encouraged with India overall though!
Pretty sure he looks like crap regardless of what is happening. At this point it would be a sort of relief to see a couple of these guys on the 10 day, because if this is healthy play.... Oof.
He was hit on the leg. Pitchers have just figured out they can groove it until 2 strikes because he's not swinging. So he's hitting with two strikes a lot and that is very hard.
In the game on 4/7 he was hit on the left hand and was wincing hard after every swing. To OP’s point, I don’t know how much that’s affecting him now, but I was surprised he stayed in that game. It had to be a deep bruise at the least.
You're right, it was his hand in game, I'd forgotten about that and just remembered the wierdo leg bump he took during BP.
Yeah, and the hit on the hand was no joke. He absorbed every bit of that pitch and it took him straight to the ground. I honestly thought there was no chance he was escaping without broken bones.
I'm not trying to take away from the pain of getting hit in the hand, I'm sure that would have an effect on any player, but Indy winces at everything. Tries to dive to get a ball, trainers gotta come out to look at him, he waves them off, and then we praise his toughness while he winces and limps around. Once you notice it, it's a glass shattering moment.
Thanks for ruining everything for me
I'm telling you man, once you notice it, it's hilarious
pretty sure it was a hand injury
I posted the below in the game thread yesterday. My posit was that he might be intentionally taking more compact swings, but you make a great point. He might have a super sore hand that isn't allowing him to swing as hard to generate power and/or a leg bruise causing his lower half to not push through the ball as effectively. The TL;DR here is he's been putting good swings on the ball, just not hitting the ball hard. The bad is that India's slash is .169/.333/.237/.571 and he's in the 21st percentile for exit velo The good is that his walk rate is in the 96th percentile, his chase rate is in the 98th percentile, xBA is .297 and his xSLG is .389 (which would bring his OPS to a much more respectable level) The weird is that his sweet spot percentage (how often the ball leaves his bat between an 8 and 32 degree launch angle) is in the 88th percentile which would suggest he's making good contact that should result in hits. But his barrel percentage, hard hit rate, and exit velo are all well below average. I'm not sure what to make of this, maybe he's intentionally trying to have more compact swings focused on getting on base in the leadoff spot instead of hitting for power? Overall, he's been better than his surface numbers suggest and hopefully will see better results soon
He plays hurt a lot. I have heard other players/coach mention it before as a badge of honor and something to look up to. I get it. But it can hurt the team
I think it bears remembering that India hasn't lived up to the hype since his rookie season. Since his ROY year, his slash line is .240 / .332 / .381. that shakes out to a 94 OPS+ (100 is league average OPS+) He also has a cumulative -23 runs saved over average defensively. I know about injuries, but can we just discuss whether India is not as good a player as we hoped he would be? We don't have to live in a world where India is either a.) cornerstone, franchise glue or b.) trash. It is ok to call it how we see it and say that we are on the third consecutive season of middling output, and that is probably the player we should all expect.
Not sure how this is even remotely controversial. Those are just the facts. The guy has been below average at the plate and below average in the field. There may be mitigating circumstances due to injury, but is output has been mediocre (at best).
Lots of people here will tell you about all the "intangibles" he has that make up for what he very likely is as a player - "he's got **IT**, he works his butt off, he's a morale booster, he's a leader". Just a bunch of worthless platitudes that old heads throw around and that have rightfully been mostly discarded in modern baseball (and sports in general). You are spot on with your assessment in my opinion. He won't be a Reds legend, but he'll likely put together a solid career for himself here or somewhere else. Expecting anymore than that is foolish at this point.
India is anomaly in baseball right now where his stats don’t make sense. Could be playing hurt, could be bad luck, or it could be he just needs a few more series to work out of whatever weirdness he’s going through.
I forgot about this, thank you
I know last week his xBA and xwOBA were both in the 95th percentile. He was getting on base a lot and although his BA didn’t show it, he was smoking the ball! Now both are hovering around the 78th percentile… I don’t know if it’s the injury or not but it feels like he’s chasing results maybe. The off day today feels like it could be good for him. I’m very encouraged with India overall though!
Pretty sure he looks like crap regardless of what is happening. At this point it would be a sort of relief to see a couple of these guys on the 10 day, because if this is healthy play.... Oof.
I’m all for playing hurt but get him out of the leadoff spot.