Brian Dozier

[TheLeviathan]

Anyone concerned about him yet?  Or thoughts on his rather poor start to the season?  

 

Last year at this time Dozier had twice as many walks and his XBH had been mostly HRs rather than doubles.  My biggest concern with him has always been the erratic nature of what he does well from month to month, is this just a down month or are there underlying problems we need to be worried about going forward?

 

(It's nice the team is playing .500 ball in spite of his play, that' encouraging)

[Hrbowski]

Nah, he is starting to look better. I think that he will be back to playing the way he does in no time.

[Blake]

Dozier's range at Second Base is something else. And, according to MLB stats, Dozier is tied for #11 in runs scored with people like Batista, Cain and Ellsbury. Pretty elite company there.

[Benchwarmerjim]

Anyone concerned about him yet?  Or thoughts on his rather poor start to the season?  

 

 

Im a little concerned.

But, whenever he gets on base, he does have a the good fortune to score a run: 19 hits, 10 walks, and he has crossed home plate 17 times (which is in the AL Top 10)

[Platoon]

Nah, he is starting to look better. I think that he will be back to playing the way he does in no time.

His hitting will ebb and flow depending on pitchers trying to sneak pitches past him inside, or making a mistake there. He sells out totally to pull for power. It was a disservice to put him in the 4 hole. It reinforced his thinking that he is a power guy. I'm not saying he can't or won't adjust his approach, but until he does, what you see, is what you get.

[USAFChief]

His hitting will ebb and flow depending on pitchers trying to sneak pitches past him inside, or making a mistake there. He sells out totally to pull for power. It was a disservice to put him in the 4 hole. It reinforced his thinking that he is a power guy. I'm not saying he can't or won't adjust his approach, but until he does, what you see, is what you get.

I agree he's miscast as a four hitter. I think he'll be just fine at lead off, or batting second.

[Squirrel]

I agree he's miscast as a four hitter. I think he'll be just fine at lead off, or batting second.

Concur

[John Bonnes]

He looked lost at the plate today. Noesi was just blowing fastballs by him, so Dozier started cheating, and Noesi made him look absolutely on the off speed pitch then.

 

On the other hand, in his last (I think) at-bat, he just missed a home run and stung a pitch that went right at the third baseman. 

 

But yeah, I was a little concerned today. He was just so slow to react on those fastballs. 

[spinowner]

 

Concur

Concur

[Platoon]

Concur

I too concur to your concur. He can be a decent 1 or 2 hitter. But to do that I do think he needs to change his approach. He's really not a natural power guy.

[TheLeviathan]

I agree he's best served emphasizing his best trait (getting on base) at the top of the order, but thus far he hasn't been doing a great job at that either.

[ashbury]

His current .303 OBP is a bit weak for a leadoff, and ultimately I'd rather see him hit second anyway. But nobody above him in OBP rank is a natural looking leadoff batter (Plouffe, Suzuki, Arcia?) plus the OBP differential is small at the moment, with the exception of Mauer's .386 which would look good at leadoff but he so sloooow as a baserunner that it's also not a natural fit unless you want to commit to station-to-station until he scores. We need someone else at the moment, a Hicks who has put it together say. And I need an editor to break up my sentences for me.

 

/ going from b-r.com so numbers aren't updated for today

[Paul Pleiss]

I'm not worried about Dozier, but I definitely don't like him hitting at or near the top of the order. I like his skill set at 5/6/7 rather than 1/2/3/4. Unless he gets his OBP up above .330, I just can't see a good excuse for givng him all of those extra at bats... of course that's only a logical answer if there are other better players to hit at the top of the order. The Twins don't have that luxury. Dozier can hit just about anywhere in this lineup, and I'm not sure there's much value added or lost as long as he's somewhere in the top half of the lineup.

 

I would, however, like to see Mauer in the 2-slot.

[Paul Pleiss]

Because I like to look at stats sometimes to see if my crazy theory makes sense, or if somethnig stands out, I present the following as an interesting note on Dozier's offensive ability so far in 2015. All stats courtesy of www.baseball-reference.com

 

2014 Splits (BA/OBP/SLG/OPS (OPS+)

vs RH .233/.349/.394/.743 (114)

vs LH .264/.337/.467/.804 (126)

 

2015 Splits (BA/OBP/SLG/OPS (OPS+)

vs RH .164/.266/.255/.520 (51)

vs LH .278/.325/.472/.797 (122)

 

It seems to me to suggest that he is having difficulty hitting RHPs this season. Surprisingly, 40 of Dozier's 104 PAs this season have come against LHP, and he has continued to do quite well against south paws.

 

I'm not good at using/creating heatmaps, but I'd be interested to see if there are any pitch type/location trends that Dozier is struggling with against RHP in the early part of this season. Visually, it seems he likes the high fastball, and he swings at a lot of fastballs up out of the zone, but when he does connect with the high heat it usually goes a long way. So I don't know that we're going to see Dozier lay off that pitch. A few more multi-hit or multi-walk games and Dozier will be on his way back towards his 2014 numbers.

 

Another fun tidbit. In 2014 Brian Dozier had one pinch hit appearance. He hit a home run. His OPS+ as a pinch hitter is 1513, to go with a line of 1.000/1.000/4.000/5.000! (BA/OBP/SLG/OPS)

 

That's fun. But that 1513 OPS+ is the best.

[jorgenswest]

I think ZIPS projections had him around 240/320/400. Steamer was little lower. I don't see why he won't be close to that range with an OPS in the 700-730 range. He is below now but it is short of a meaningful sample size.

[nicksaviking]

Clearly this is another "Show me the money!" Joe Mauer 2010 situation.

 

Duscuss

[TheLeviathan]

 

Clearly this is another "Show me the money!" Joe Mauer 2010 situation.

Duscuss

 

I dig the jab, but in truth this was one of the main reasons to be against an extension for Dozier.  We're only a month in and I'm not writing that off as a bad idea (WAY too soon for that), but Dozier has always been a really erratic contributor.

[Paul Pleiss]

 

I dig the jab, but in truth this was one of the main reasons to be against an extension for Dozier.  We're only a month in and I'm not writing that off as a bad idea (WAY too soon for that), but Dozier has always been a really erratic contributor.

I don't like to call the Dozier contract an extension. Team control was not extended. Contract cost was secured, but either way the team had 4 years of control. Only now the team has gauranteed the money and if Dozier falls off a cliff or declines quickly (as many "late bloomers" do) the team still has to pay him all of those dollar dollar billz y'all.

[nicksaviking]

I dig the jab, but in truth this was one of the main reasons to be against an extension for Dozier.  We're only a month in and I'm not writing that off as a bad idea (WAY too soon for that), but Dozier has always been a really erratic contributor.

Actually my jab was at any hypothetical poster who says a player will tank after getting paid. I wasn't in favor of an extension but he basically just got a pay increase. I could care less how the Pohlads blow their money assuming they have enough left for more essential signings later.

[Paul Pleiss]

 

Actually my jab was at any hypothetical poster who says a player will tank after getting paid. I wasn't in favor of an extension but he basically just got a pay increase. I could care less how the Pohlads blow their money assuming they have enough left for more essential signings later.

The Pohlads have plenty of money left over. They've got some Ervin Santana money, plus a bunch of bags of cold hard cash lying around that they could blow on Torii Hunter 2.0 later this season or next.

 

The hard part for the Pohlads seems to be spending the money. They've got it. We just need someone to pry it from their hands.

[Craig Arko]

No, I'm not especially worried about Dozier (right after the triple).

[stringer bell]

OPS is over .700 (after a 4-hit game), despite "only" two homers.  He works counts, gets walks, and is the team's best base runner.  If I'm the Twins manager, I bat him leadoff until they find someone better.

[jokin]

Based on how Buxton, Plouffe and now, for today anyway, Dozier, have responded to TD "concern" threads, I'm wondering if we could start a weekly series for the guys mired in the worst slumps, it sure seems to trigger a nice reaction. 

[stringer bell]

 

Based on how Buxton, Plouffe and now, for today anyway, Dozier, have responded to TD "concern" threads, I'm wondering if we could start a weekly series for the guys mired in the worst slumps, it sure seems to trigger a nice reaction. 

Don't forget Vargas.  Multiple hits in consecutive games and a long homer today. 

[jokin]

The Vargas bat appears to be stirring from its slumbers,  hasn't embarrassed himself in the field yet, and most importantly.... what he accomplished in the White Sox series was easily the most entertaining Twins baserunner in a single series in a long, long time.

[blindeke]

 

I'm not worried about Dozier, but I definitely don't like him hitting at or near the top of the order. I like his skill set at 5/6/7 rather than 1/2/3/4. Unless he gets his OBP up above .330, I just can't see a good excuse for givng him all of those extra at bats... 

 

Imagine if the Twins had a bunch of good hitters instead of only 2-3...

[Brananorama]

 

Don't forget Vargas.  Multiple hits in consecutive games and a long homer today. 

 

Danny Santana seems to be finding his stroke, also. He went 11-for-28 (.392) with 3 doubles and scored 5 times over the course of this homestand after hitting just .210 prior. Still no walks, though, which I think at this point should be the main course of concern. When he sees it like he has these last few days he's got it under control, but he hasn't been seeing it nearly enough.

[stringer bell]

Would the OP like to withdraw this thread.  6-7 w/ a walk, 2 2B and a 3B.  All of a sudden he looks pretty good.  That is SSS for you.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Would the OP like to withdraw this thread.  6-7 w/ a walk, 2 2B and a 3B.  All of a sudden he looks pretty good.  That is SSS for you.

 

Withdraw it?  Pfft, I'm taking credit for it!