...the weight of his recent rough stretch - and the Mets' hitting woes overall - is starting to wear on the third baseman.
"I can't do what I've been doing, which is to ride that emotional roller coaster where I'm living and dying with every at-bat," said Wright, a career .309 hitter who is batting just .262 this season. "I know there are going to be streaks."
...No one is taking Wright's drought harder than the 25-year-old himself. He was one of the first Mets to show up four hours before a game at Dodger Stadium this week to take extra batting practice, and he continues to work constantly with hitting coach Howard Johnson to find a solution.
"He's just been over-swinging," Johnson said. "That's going to happen in the course of a year. We'll keep making adjustments. He's going to get back to going off the way he used to do. I'm convinced of that."
Glad to hear that he takes his job seriously and is showing up early for B.P., but does self-flagellation help in this situation?
It makes me (and most fans) feel better, but is the player who sleeps well at night whether he hits for the cycle or takes an o-fer more likely to rebound from a slump than one who is "living and dying with each AB"?
Just wondering...
3 comments:
I think that the player who shrugs off the 0-fer or the big day is less likely to enter a "slump" but I also believe that the guys who do get invested in each at-bat are the ones who have a chance to achieve greatness. Yes, they may slump but when they get in a groove--look out. Wright has already shown the propensity for this and I have every confidence that he'll break out soon.
I love you man.
I'm not too worried about wright, given that he shook off his 6-week slump last year in tremendous style. I'm more worried about wright not having anyone else on the team except church who can hit. That said, I think a lot more weight falls on his shoulders than it should, just because the media always looks to him to be the team spokesman. The real leaders on the team should be pedro, beltran, and delgado. With pedro always injured it lessens his ability to really be a vocal leader.
With beltran and delgado i remember reading a piece last year pointing out that since so many of the mets veterans are not native english speakers, the media always congregates around wright for quotes. wright himself or someone else on the team said something last year, that players like beltran and delgado ought to take up more of the post-game press responsibility. i really do think the mets are doing themselves a disservice to wright's long-term development by allowing him to take on the responsibility to speak for the entire team, when you have big time vets like johan, pedro, beltran, and delgado. even the fact that reyes doesn't have to interface with the media 1/10th as often as wright.
it just puts wright in an awkward situation to constantly have to defend the team when quite frankly their play was indefensible over certain stretches, and he ends up having to give lame quote after lame quote.
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