Slumps Are Slumps; Everyone Has Em; Get Over It
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by Romiezzo
Everybody in baseball goes through a slump once in a while. Once they are in that slump, almost every one of their "fans" turn their back on them and have no faith in them whatsoever. Many players on the Red Sox have been through slumps: Manny Ramirez, Coco Crisp, even David Ortiz. The one guy that I felt sorry for because of his huge slump was Julio Lugo. Almost everyone (even Red Sox fans) had little, if not no faith in him. Many people thought that he sucked and was completely useless of the team, and he was the weakest link in the chain. I'm sure many people changed their minds about that.
Every single player on every team has his ups and downs, and every player can get lucky on certain days. You can't get lucky on every single day you play, but we know how certain people do in a season. Look at A-Rod's numbers in his bad month last season or Derek Jeter's bad start a couple of years ago (0-40 something). Look what happened at the end of the season. They both had good seasons in their slumping months. I guess this is why the "Comeback Player of the Year" award started; because of a player having one bad year, we need to respect the players for what they have done and admit that we are wrong by judging certain players by one bad season, or one bad month of a season.
Other players that I can name are Pat Burrell, Hideki Matsui, Alfonso Soriano, Mariano Rivera, Chone Figgins, Albert Pujols and Paul Konerko. Let's look at one guy who has broke out big in his slump.
Pat Burrell: He had a good start of the season with a .292 AVG, and a .449 OBP in April. In May, he went downhill, and I'm sure many people (some being Phillies fans) thought that he was not going to do much for the rest of the season. In May, he only had a .179 AVG, and in June, it was even worse, as he hit only .129. Many of you people who know Pat Burrell know that he doesn't hit that well for average, but in June, he made up for those two bad months, as he hit .435 with 6 home runs and 22 RBIs. He was on the Mendoza line in the beginning of the July, and since then, he increased his average by .060, his OBP by .054, and his SLG by .106. He is currently on a 11 game hitting streak and has been on base the last 23 games. Not what you thought about Burrell huh? Getting on base 23 out of the last 23 games.
Now, there are a lot of other players that have had slumps who haven't broke out of it. I would just like to send a message to the people who judge players too quickly, and that means if you think guys like Andruw Jones and Scott Rolen suck right now, all I have to say is have faith in those players to do well. We all wish that out teams can do well all the time, but one side has got to win, and one side has to lose; it's either the pitcher/defense or the batter who wins every single at-bat. Some people just get unlucky, and I think that is what makes baseball great: it's spontaneous, and you never know what will happen in a game.
