May 29, 2017

Are the Dodgers Slow?

Cody Bellinger homered in Monday’s game between the Dodgers and the Cardinals, a solo shot. That gives him 25 runs scored and 29 RBI on the season in 31 games. Given his power, and his ability to hit for power with men on base, that RBI total looks low to me. Coming into today’s game, he came up with 96 runners on and drove in 18 of those runners, 18.75%. That’s good, but not great. He is hitting .304/.365/.661 with men on, and that slugging percentage should be driving runners a log way around the bases. With a man on first base only, Bellinger hit three doubles and two home runs, for five RBI. That means his doubles only drove in one run. He did hit a triple and a homer with the bases loaded, and has eight RBI in that situation.

He has two singles with a man on second with no RBI. With men on first and second, he hit two home runs, and his three singles appeared to drive in two runs. Either the Dodgers are not running well, or Bellinger is hitting the ball so hard it gets to the outfielders too quickly for the runners to score. It looks like Yasmani Grandal and Adrian Gonzalez bat in front of Bellinger. Maybe it’s time the the Dodgers to move him up in the order where some speed could add to his RBI totals.

The Dodgers lead the Cardinals 3-1 after five innings.

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