Braves phenom Jason Heyward came up to the majors and immediately started producing for the Braves. But now, he's in a bit of a slump. What's going on?
So far in '10, Heyward is hitting .239 with 3 doubles, 5 homers, 17 RBI, and a .365 OBP. During his first 10 games, he hit .316 with 3 doubles, 3 homers, 12 RBI, and a .409 OBP. But since then, he has hit just .152 with 2 homers, 5 RBI, and a .317 OBP. Everyone goes into slumps, but let's go a little bit more inside this slump.
So far in '10, he has hit .255 versus righties and .208 versus lefties. He has hit .264 versus righty starters, but just .167 versus lefty starters. The lefty starters he has faced so far are Sean Marshall, Jamie Moyer, Jonathan Niese, Greg Smith, Jonathan Sanchez, and Clayton Richard. He only got one hit against all of these pitchers, a single against Jonathan Niese. That's obviously very bad.
The big problem for the Braves is that they only win when Heyward does well. Heyward has hit .433 in games that the Braves win, and just .098 in games that the Braves lose. He completely carries the team when they win, but is helpless when they lose!
The funny thing about this is that Heyward has been so clutch. He is hitting .444 with runners in scoring position and .462 with 2 outs and runners in scoring position. But seems to be so bad at every other time. In fact, he's hit just .195 with the bases empty, and just .083 with a runner on first. He does have 4 solo home runs.
Heyward is a very interesting case so far in his young career. Unlike most players who are better without runners in scoring position, Heyward appears to be much better with runners in scoring position. If he keeps this up, he'll be a very clutch player and a fan-favorite, but then you'll look up at the stats and you'll see that he's hitting just .250 or less. But, he's on pace to hit 39 homers, so the Braves would probably be okay with that.
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