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Like Ross Stripling, Lourdes Gurriel’s first-half splits nicely between a crappy first month and a half and a good second two months.
On May 13th, Lourdes hit .195/.215/.278 with 2 home runs, 3 walks, and 28 strikeouts.
Since then, he’s been hitting .321/.341/.543 with 8 home runs, 6 walks, and 32 strikeouts.
He’s been a slow starter to this point in his career. If you could match Randal Grichuk’s start with Lourdes’ last two months, you would have an All-Star. Randal has the better end of the deal. If you start hot, it takes a long time for people to notice when you stop hitting. And it goes the other way as well. Start cold, and no one notices when you start hitting.
For the entire first half, Lourdes is hitting .268/.287/.428 with 10 home runs. In addition, he’s walking a lot less than last year, just 3.0% of the time. He was at 6.3% last year (though that might improve with his improved hitting).
I thought that maybe Lourdes played better when the temperature got warmer. Being Cuban and all, I thought he just liked it hot out. But then, this year, we started the season in Florida, which I’m sure is warmer in April than Buffalo in June. And he still had the slow start.
Defensively, he is what he is. FanGraphs has him at a 3.7 UZR, which is better than what my eyes say, so maybe I’m too rough on him. He doesn’t seem to go back on the ball well, but then he starts so deep in the outfield that he rarely needs to go back. He has made two official errors, one throwing, one fielding, but it feels like there were more unofficial type errors. And he has 8 outfield assists. His arm is strong, and he can hit the strike zone from deep left field.
Lourdes has played 19 innings at first base and has looked fine there. First base is easy, right? I have the Keith Hernandez Seinfeld playing in my head, Keith tells Elaine about all the Gold Gloves he won, and she says, ‘yeah, at first base. They always put the worst player at first base.’
Lourdes has a 0.3 fWAR and a 0.6 bWAR.
Poll
For the first half, I’d give Lourdes Gurriel an
This poll is closed
-
0%
A
(7 votes) -
5%
B+
(48 votes) -
24%
B
(196 votes) -
27%
B-
(225 votes) -
21%
C+
(178 votes) -
12%
C
(100 votes) -
4%
C-
(39 votes) -
1%
D+
(10 votes) -
0%
D
(8 votes) -
0%
D-
(0 votes) -
0%
F
(5 votes)