I got home last night and turned on the TV hoping to catch the end of the Blackhawks game. During the game, I checked the scores scrolling across the bottom, as I'm accustomed to doing. I see the Cubs lose 3-2 and if that's not enough, the station goes out of their way to quote Aramis Ramirez, "I am my own hitting coach."
Other than steroid allegations, I can't think of anything worse than seeing a player criticize his mananger or teammates through the media, Twitter, or any other electronic medium I'm not yet aware of. I must confess I began to think the season was over, or at least Ramirez's season. Only 34 games in and we already have a struggling superstar who is unwilling to change his approach that is obviously not working.
Ramirez is batting just .159 on the young season, .194 with runners in scoring position, and his .227 OBP is reminiscent of a backup catcher's. He's seeing an abundance of outside pitches this year, hasn't moved up on the plate, nor made a commitment to trying to drive the ball to the opposite field.
I guess I was so shocked by Ramirez's comments mainly because in a Cubs uniform he has never gone through a stretch this bad. Even when he was in the middle of bad stretches, chasing balls out of the zone, he always managed to come up with a big hit with RISP. That's the big difference this year, the focus at the plate with RISP just isn't there.
Before writing this I was prepared to make a joke such as, "Well, if Ramirez is his own hitting coach, does that mean he can fire himself?" I figured I better look into his comments a bit more, and lo and behold here is the entire quote. "I am my own hitting coach. I can listen to Rudy [Jaramillo, Cubs hitting coach] and work with him-and I have been working with him-but I know myself better than anybody. So I know what I have to do to get right."
As you can see the full quote isn't so bad. Damn sensationalist headline got me once again.
Now that Ramirez's somewhat-taken-out-of-context quote is cleared up, let me offer a bit of fantasy baseball advice. If at all possible, do not draft players who you actively root for or whose performance correlates to the success of the team you root for. I have to admit I've never followed my own advice and end up kicking myself everytime. I was able to snag Ramirez in the 4th round (50th overall) thinking he was undervalued because of his injury last year. (He was a consensus 3rd round draft pick in last year's draft). Every 0-4 is like an 0-8 for me because it kills the Cubs and my fantasy team. It makes it harder to enjoy games. For instance, say the Cubs happen to win 8-2 today, get a great pitching performance from Carlos Silva and a few clutch hits from Byrd and Soriano, but Ramirez goes 1-4 with 2 Ks. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't care, the Cubs won and that's all that matters. But now, I can't enjoy that game as much, yeah it's a win in the standings, but I can't help but fixate on that useless .250 BA.
Ramirez is too good of a hitter to go on like this. His BA will most likely be shot for the season. I think back to Jim Edmonds a few years ago, who despite a second half tear was only able to bring his average up to .235. The same will happen to Ramirez, although I expect his HR total to still be in the mid to high 20s, which is fine for this homer happy club. He needs to pick up his average with RISP more than anything. In that area he has never faltered, and can't this year if the Cubs are going to be successful.
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