Houston Astros rookie Bregman endured a tough slump to start his major league career, but he has been one of the best hitters in baseball since. Were people too quick to write him off?
Baseball is a game of sample sizes. MLB doesn’t have a 162-game season just to bring in extra revenue. Players each have their own sets of ups and downs, and the only way to find out who really are the better hitters and pitchers is to have them take the field nearly every day for an entire summer. Mike Trout goes through slumps and Ryan Schimpf will have the occasional hot streak, but in the end Trout is still winning MVPs and Schimpf has an uncertain future ahead of him.
The Astros called up former No. 2 overall pick Alex Bregman in late July to see if their top prospect was able to contribute to the team down the stretch. 19 games into his major league career, that move was looking like a blunder for Houston. Bregman started off 0-for his first 17 and 1-for his first 32, causing many to point fingers at the Astros organization for rushing him to the big leagues.
Over the last month, Bregman has taken any doubt about what he is capable of and tossed it out the window. In 27 games over that span, Houston’s third baseman has posted a .330/.374/.652 slash line with eight home runs and 24 runs scored. Astros manager A.J. Hinch moved him up to the No. 2 spot in the lineup, putting him in a perfect position to contribute to their offense.
“I just had to make some changes and once those changes were made I felt more comfortable,” Bregman said, “baseball is a consistent game of adjustments and you got to keep making adjustments, cause the pitcher is going to keep trying different ways to get you out.” (h/t Joshua Reese, CBS Houston)
Bregman’s early slump is a classic example of how easy it is to overreact to a small stretch of a player’s performance. Anything can happen in a small sample, good or bad. Judging a player based on 17, 32, or even 100 at-bats is a foolish attempt at evaluation. Let things play out and in the end the player will show everyone who they really are. Bregman has shown everyone that he’s the real deal. The funny thing is, he’s just getting started.
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