McCutchen's drop off

dogknot17@yahoo.co · Post by **dogknot17@yahoo.co** » Thu May 11, 2017 2:44 pm

I am not sure what happened to Andrew McCutchen. has anyone seen a super star, former MVP drop off as much at a young age?

I am trying to think. McCutchen wasn't just an All Star, he was a Super Star, face of a franchise, one of the faces of baseball and is under the age of 30. He was due a $100 million contract.

I know some former MVPs got worse with age, but McCutchen should be hitting his prime. I do hope he turns it around, but it is mind boggling to me. I wanted McCutchen to be a Pirate his whole career and hoping the rise of Austin Meadows made it a tough decision on what to do with all these outfielders.

Just curious, has anyone seen this before? Or remembers a player dropping off the map so quickly after being the best?

SammyKhalifa · Post by **SammyKhalifa** » Thu May 11, 2017 2:47 pm

I was hoping for a comeback, but it's looking like those two better months were the fluke and not his dropoff.

Bobster21 · Post by **Bobster21** » Thu May 11, 2017 3:17 pm

Here's an ESPN article from last year titled "McCutchen's decline unprecedented for a superstar."

http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post ... tar-hitter

notes34 · Post by **notes34** » Thu May 11, 2017 3:25 pm

Don't be so quick to dismiss him just yet. The strikeouts are down.(Although so are the walks) He seems to be making hard contact. If you look at some of the advanced stats he is getting extremely unlucky. His BABIP was hovering around .226.(Career avg. was around .328) That will not stay that low. His exit velocity and launch angle are also not bad. It seems to me some of these things will begin to even out. Will he be an every year MVP candidate, no. Can he still be an above average player, yes I think he can.

johnfluharty · Post by **johnfluharty** » Thu May 11, 2017 3:35 pm

I really hope you're right, notes

dogknot17@yahoo.co · Post by **dogknot17@yahoo.co** » Thu May 11, 2017 4:05 pm

230E03121504135350610 wrote: Here's an ESPN article from last year titled "McCutchen's decline unprecedented for a superstar."

http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post ... tar-hitter

I remember this article. Not many names in comparison. The ones mentioned got injured. It's just very odd to me about McCutchen.

SCBucco · Post by **SCBucco** » Thu May 11, 2017 4:36 pm

3338303C3938236660172E363F3838793438570 wrote: I am not sure what happened to Andrew McCutchen. has anyone seen a super star, former MVP drop off as much at a young age?

I am trying to think. McCutchen wasn't just an All Star, he was a Super Star, face of a franchise, one of the faces of baseball and is under the age of 30. He was due a $100 million contract.

I know some former MVPs got worse with age, but McCutchen should be hitting his prime. I do hope he turns it around, but it is mind boggling to me. I wanted McCutchen to be a Pirate his whole career and hoping the rise of Austin Meadows made it a tough decision on what to do with all these outfielders.

Just curious, has anyone seen this before? Or remembers a player dropping off the map so quickly after being the best?

Should have dumped him in the offseason for what Washington was offering and not get greedy for them to have to add Robles. There have been a number of red flags out there that he wasn't going to return to All-Star caliber. Now, we won't get much of a return at the trade deadline for a guy plummeting in value.

notes34 · Post by **notes34** » Thu May 11, 2017 4:38 pm

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/player?p ... ype=batter

SammyKhalifa · Post by **SammyKhalifa** » Thu May 11, 2017 4:41 pm

I was looking at that too. Too bad I have absolutely no idea what to make of it.

notes34 · Post by **notes34** » Thu May 11, 2017 4:57 pm

If you go to the site and find his name and click on it, you can see more data. It shows each and every batted ball date. Exit velocity, launch angle, etc. His BABIP is now at .226. Like I stated before, I think Cutch has been extremely unlucky. His overall exit velocity is down somewhat from 2015 but with that said it's not that bad. He has a max EV of 109.5 which is pretty good. I think some of these hard hit balls are going to start finding holes. Averages tell us they should!