Rodrigo turns 34 today. Hope he has a great day.
Rod's having his normal season of being very hot some of the time, with long stretches of not being able to hit the ball at all. His OPS by month this year:
April .826
May .673
June .686
July .520
August .789
He hit 7 of his 16 homers in August, which saved hit OPS for that month since he hit only .225 but 8 of his 16 hits were for extra bases (7 homers and 1 double).
He's likely the player that will cause the most arguments for us. Some think he's doing great because he has already tied his career high in RBI with 60. But then he gets on base so rarely he's only scored 37 runs, no where near a career high. His OPS+ is 80 down from 86 last year. He's gives us decent defense and has thrown out 34% of the guys that tried to steal against him.
A free agent at the end of the year, I'm on the fence about resigning him. If he will sign cheap for a season sure, if not, we could pass. He's not going to carry a team to the playoffs but he likely won't hurt you too much, if you keep him out of the middle of the order. Unless, of course, there was some way to tell when he is going to start on a hot streak, then he could hit in the middle of the order.
Anyway, happy birthday Rod. Hope it is a good one. Celebrate it with a win.