Chris Taylor Feeling Better as The Dodgers Season Goes Along
Dodgers utility man Chris Taylor has had a strange season. If you look at the counting stats, it hasn't been all that great.
His batting average is sitting at .205 entering play on Tuesday. But he does has 17 extra base hits that help boost his on-base-plus-slugging to .728 on the season. But, as you peel back the numbers and squint one eye at times, he's actually putting together a fairly productive year.
Since April 25th, he's hitting .245 with a .795 OPS against all pitchers. Versus left-handers, on the season, he's hitting .237 but with a .936 OPS, which is an all-star caliber number.
He spoke recently about his uneven season.
"This year as a whole is kind of been up and down, or more down early and then better recently in the last month or so I've been feeling better. So just kind of trying to ride that on keep going and continue to improve. I feel like in the last month I've been trending upward. Trying to keep that going and play good baseball."
As the season has gone along, CT3 has gotten better. That much credit you can give him. The power, bat to ball, and on-base have improved. And while he may have take a bit of a step back again in recent games, the overall at-bat quality has been solid. He talked about what's been working right for him.
"I think I've been in a better place mechanically like more consistent being able to take the same approach and same feels into the game every day has been nice. Last year and the beginning of this year, I felt like I was constantly searching, which is never a good feeling. I still tinker here and there, but overall, no drastic changes which has allowed me to get more consistent results."..."I think it's finding that balance of being able to relax in the box and kind of trust everything and not trying to force the results. ... So I think it's sort of just taking it one day at a time and that's been a big thing for me the last month or so is, you know, when I'm in there trying to find a way to relax as much as I can and release that tension and I think when you're in that state, you're you're able to react better and see the ball better and the ball slows down a little bit."
With the Dodgers facing three right-handed pitchers against the White Sox this week at Dodger Stadium, he doesn't figure to get into too much action. But if he does, at least it should be a competitive at-bat.
