One GIDP in a "crunch time" is not a problem, no. It's baseball.
Yes, it is baseball but I seem to recall a game last September when he hit a 9th inning, two run homer off Drew Storen. But that's baseball too, pre-$126 million baseball.
He's not completely averse to coming through at "crunch time", clearly.
His BA? Sure, if you ignore his OBP then his BA is a problem.
Oh , I don't ignore his OBP at all but the BA component of his OPB, .226, is REALLY low so it (his OBP) gets dragged down quite a bit.
He's in the two hole. He's about the best number two batter I've seen around. His approach to at-bats is completely professional, he's seeing a ton of pitches and getting on base, he's setting the table for those that comes after him.
I expect him to move down in the order at some point because Morse is choking and Zimmerman can't do it all. Then you can watch for his impact.
Yes, that's all well and good but...are you not at all troubled by his performance, thus far? Not even a little? You might not get me calling him "Haynes-Werth", which is understandable, but I don't get how you can have watched his performance this season and not be even slightly taken aback.
He was 280 something before tonight. OPS was over 800, it's still early in the season.
It was .259 before tonight...which is also terrible and his OPS is .771, which is not good. It certainly would have helped his numbers (and the team) if he'd gotten a hit or two tonight. It's not like Chris Capuano (or the dreck the Mets trotted out there after him) is second coming of Nolan Ryan.
If you can't expect him to get a hit off Capuano et al, when can you?
