What to make of Ben Zobrist?

Nothing wrong with that. But this is over his head in the long run.

but there is an alternate account. this story tells about zobrist going to a new swing mechanic that changed his approach drastically:

http://www.draysbay.com/2009/4/23/849233/cracking-the-zobrist-code-what-is

so maybe this change is for real (at least part of it)

what do you all think?

thought that was a steal of a deal when it was made. Granted, that was because i was quite high on mitch talbot, who has stalled a bit at AAA. I did like Zobrist, though. Thought he had a chance to be a regular. I’m not sure what to make of this power, though. Obviously, maintaining this rate is rather unlikely, but can he maintain plus power? I have my doubts, but I think he could probably put up, say, Mark DeRosa like numbers as a regular.

As someone who watches just about every Rays game, I can tell you I believe Zobrist is for real. He’s got 22 bombs in his last 330 AB’s, I don’t think that pace will continue though. However, he has en excellent eye, he’s hitting fewer ground balls, he’s not been particularly lucky (or unlucky), he’s swinging less at balls outside the strikezone, making more contact when he does swing outside the zone. Everything you would like to see develop over a couple year period, he’s doing.

And just from watching him, he’s bigger, filled out, compared to the skinny guy he was when he first debuted. He hammers fastballs inside, particularly from the left side of the plate. His homers don’t scrape the back of the fence, they seem to always be pretty deep into the stands.

I think we are seeing maybe an 18 month to two year period of his best play, but he’ll settle in as a 20-25 homer guy, .280/.370/.500 for a couple years.

I think what’s got everyone question Zobrist (and Bartlett) is that they both came up with this power unexpectedly in their late 20’s. What is the precedence for that?

Occasionally there are those guys with great, great plate discipline who can add power to their game at the major league level. Kevin Youkilis was one of these guys, never hitting more than 8 home runs in a minor league season, hitting 13 and 16 homers in his first two seasons respectively, then bashing 29 last season and finding himself on pace for around 30 this season. It’s not like Zobrist flashed any less doubles power than Youk in the minors either. Add in that Zobrist is by no means a little guy, and I think this power is probably legit.

I don’t think that Bartlett’s is though.

I mean, he changed his swing and his approach completely last season, so there is that, but this is just absurd. Is he going to continue to SLG north of .650? No. But his power is very much legit. He hits everything hard. I’ve never seen a transformation more dramatic than he made, but his plate discipline and power are both very much for real. Legit 30 home run power.

Quite a hottie.