Sometimes to his detriment with his management. But if we can allow for a guy with a different beat (and we've done okay with Rodney, y'know) then Logan is definitely someone I want on this team. I don't know that he'll ever go back to his rookie heights... but there are always Jose Bautistas and Jayson Werths, guys with good eyes and iffy early contact rates (and therefore mediocre power because they aren't hitting the ball on the screws). You get them into their late 20s and all of a sudden then become crushers.
In the Old Days of the 90s, many times that meant roiding. Does that mean HGH now, or something else? We still dunno, but it's easier to believe these guys are simply getting enough ABs to build their databases and enough repetition to master their swings. Logan has a good swing. He has a good approach. I would like to see him get the Justin Smoak advice to go for 40 doubles and 25 homers... and more than that is a bonus.
In the end, maybe it's as simple as boys growing into men. When they first get their Man Strength they're trying to do too much with it. If you try to muscle an axe when chopping wood you'll cut your own foot off (as Jack Del Rio once discovered as a head coach when doing a stupid motivational example). If you trust the swing and the tool, you can split wood pretty easily. Once these strong men grow confident in their strength it's possible for them to settle in and relax. Once they trust their swings, the power jump happens naturally.
I don't believe it will happen for Smoak without a smaller park. He doesn't make good enough contact, and has shown basically no improvement in that area. 83 mph meatballs popped up for easy outs or "crushed" to the warning track just give me the confidence that he can turn into a late-20s masher for us.
Logan is younger (by a year, but still), presses less, and had some of the worst luck I can think of to start the season, both in an injury and a BABIP sense. The last month, as a healthy guy with a normal .300ish BABIP in a pennant race, he's been a .280/ .330/ .525 hitter.
We really, REALLY need that. He may only be a part-time player, giving you 300-400 ABs a year. 400 ABs from Buster Posey won the Giants a title. I would love for Trader Jack to finally have added a bat to help us in a serious way. I'd love another month of this from Logan. He's having fun! Remember, he came from the toxic wasteland known as the Marlins - he has no experience with this either. But he seems suited to handle it.
We need as many of those guys as we can get. Play on, players...
~G
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