Church got 2 walks yesterday.
Regarding Church's walks, his first at bat yesterday when he walked was a stellar plate appearance. It really was an important at bat at the time because Willis was being so efficient with pitches.
Church with more discipline should have a great OBP and eventually get good pitches to hit. With regular at bats in April, I am really expecting him to have a high OBP for the month and bat anywhere from .275-.300. Why? Because he has been batting well, and has had numbers in the past. Regarding his spring, it was a small sample size. But there were good indications there:
He did indeed struggled early. But it was stated clearly that he spent the first couple of weeks with a different stance to allow him to lay back on breaking balls. He said that impacted his performance. So after the initial period he moved back to his more comfortable stance. Through his first 41 ABs he had 7 hits (.170 BA). At that time I remember saying that Snelling had all of two more hits. Only one more hit a week for Church would have made a big difference. Church finished the Spring with 14 hits on 65 ABs. So clearly, the last couple of weeks of Spring training was an upward trend.
It's still a small sample. The real test is now. Church should be able to - and will need to produce - with regular at bats. And as long as he gets them, I would expect to see decent numbers over an entire month of playing every day. Whether that comes in the form of high OBP, average, or run production, or some combination remains to be seen. But we should expect to see production.
