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Blue Jays mid-term report card: Brandon Belt

By Tom Dakers
/ new
MLB: Houston Astros at Toronto Blue Jays John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Brandon Belt was a free agent signing in January.

His season didn’t start well, but it picked up from there:

  • April: .170/.246/.288.
  • May: .333/.470/.470.
  • June: .260/.345/.500.

.470 OBP in May?

As always, if you start slow, people don’t notice when you get the bat going.

There was the injury in June, and he’s had a tough time since returning from it. He needs to make adjustments again. We are always told it is a game of adjustments. Batters have trouble with a pitch, they adjust, and they have trouble with a different pitch.

In all:

Standard Batting
Age G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ GDP HBP SF IBB
35 56 211 179 21 45 16 0 4 18 0 0 30 82 .251 .360 .408 .768 116 3 1 1 1
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/2/2023.

Baseball Reference has him at a 0.4 WAR and FanGraphs at 0.5. He has a 118 wRC+.

Like most of the team, he hasn’t been hitting with RISP: .196/.296/.239.

Not that it is of much significance, but Belt rarely swings at the first pitch of an at-bat (just 21 times this season). When he does, .571/.571/.952. He likes to watch a pitch go by, but occasionally, he jumps on one. When you get a reputation for letting the first pitch go by, pitchers notice and make sure to throw a strike.

And, you’ve likely noticed, he’s slow. FanGraphs has him at -1.9 runs on the bases.

Defensively, he’s filled in for Vlad at first, getting 17 starts. FanGraphs has him at a 7.3 UZR/150, but it isn’t a large enough sample size to really judge. He’s been reported to be a Ffine defensive first baseman, and he’s looked fine at the position to me.

A minor is that the front office, as well as trying to improve team defense, thought that last year’s offense was too right-handed heavy. This year, it seems that we have too many lefties. There is always at least one lefty in the lineup against lefty pitchers, who really really wouldn’t want to face a LHP. But then, Belt has only had 20 PA against left-handers.

Poll

For the first half, I’d give Brandon Belt an

This poll is closed

  • 1%
    A
    (3 votes)
  • 13%
    B+
    (38 votes)
  • 27%
    B
    (77 votes)
  • 18%
    B-
    (53 votes)
  • 13%
    C+
    (38 votes)
  • 8%
    C
    (23 votes)
  • 5%
    C-
    (15 votes)
  • 1%
    D+
    (4 votes)
  • 5%
    D
    (15 votes)
  • 1%
    D-
    (5 votes)
  • 3%
    F
    (11 votes)
282 votes total Vote Now

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