The inadequency of house runs doesn’t hassle Eric Chavez.
That’s now not the disorder, the Mets hitting professor believes, with regards to Francisco Alvarez’s prolonged droop.
“Literally what I told him, I said: ‘Everybody wants to talk about homers, everybody wants to jump right into the homers.’ I told him: ‘I just want you to be a good hitter,” Chavez stated of the catcher, who used to be 0-for-4 in Saturday’s 4-0 win over the Marlins at Citi Farmland. “I said: ‘In a few years, you will be the best offensive catcher in this game, no question about it.’ I’ll put my name on that. There’s no doubt. But he just needs to learn how to be a good hitter.”
It’s an ongoing procedure.
Upcoming lacking seven weeks with a torn ligament in his left thumb, Alvarez returned purple scorching, generating a 1.125 OPS in 15 June video games, sparking the Mets. He crash safely in 11 of the ones contests, generating 8 extra-base hits. However July used to be now not sort, with Alvarez managing only a .577 OPS. He has most effective began to seem higher on the plate not too long ago, even supposing he’s most effective hitting .243/.282/.297 this era.
“I told him, ‘Last year you hit 25 homers. Did you think it was a good year? Because I didn’t,’ ” Chavez stated of Alvarez, who has a mediocre .712 OPS this season, however most effective 5 house runs and 27 RBIs in 214 at-bats. “You look at all your numbers, I thought it was not very good at all. I said, ‘When you came back this year from your injury, that’s a good hitter. You’ll learn to do the homer thing, but become a good hitter first and make consistent contact and hit the mistakes, then the home runs are going to come.’ Everybody just wants to jump right into home runs — that kind of messes things up a little bit.”
Chavez believes the 22-year-old Alvarez has been too targeted at the house run and looking to whip the ball, in lieu of the use of all gardens. Chavez has spotted move of overdue. From July 1 thru Aug. 4, Alvarez struck out 26 instances in 20 video games. He has whiffed 9 instances within the extreme 10 video games.
“I tell him: He’s got a Ferrari engine. I just need him to work on the brakes,” the hitting professor stated. “He can drive the car at 100. I need him to drive it at 30. Once he learns to get control of his body, the better off he’s going to be.”
