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Look I’m not a hitting expert, and if I were I would probably be someplace warm, working with hitters during spring training – instead of shoveling out after a Chicago snow storm.
But I know two things:
1. When Peguero hits the ball in the air, he usually hits it much harder and it goes much further than most professional baseball players can hit a baseball.
2. A year ago an obit had already been written for Saunders baseball career, but all he needed was some rubber bands, a heavy bat, and a swimming noodle to resurrect his career. (Saunders admitted that, several other Hitting coaches had explained how to correctly approach hitting a baseball. But it was not until he hooked up with Bard, who said the same things as the other coaches but just in a different way, did it all begin to click).
N.B. Saunders Minor League numbers looked pretty good.
It seems to me that Peguero, is diligently working to improve his approach just like Saunders is also working to ensure he can stay consistent with his new approach - thru the use of a swimming noodle. So why throw in the towel on a player whose prodigious power does not come a long very often, just because watching him whiff has been an emotionally painful experience. The M’s have a long history of tossing away players before they can mature into a full-fledged major leaguer: Ibanez, Morse, Choo, Morrow… And if memory serves me right, King Felix also had his struggles for a year or two (especially with his pitch selection/sequence) before he finally became his dominant self.
It is not often a player like a Trout come a long that splashes onto the scene with instant success – and without needing to travel up that learning curve. Even at the major league level player development takes time and patience, which includes when players fail at the major league level but show tools that indicate they may be able to impact the game – give them a chance to hone their skills (with a new/improved approach) at the minor league level. I know I want instant gratification when it comes to a prospect achieving success when they arrive in Seattle but all too often it takes that extra time, because they have now reached the apex of competition that not only have the detailed scouting report which details a player’s weaknesses but the opposing players have the necessary skill level to execute a plan of attack to exploit these weaknesses.
So now are young players (e.g. Peguero, Smoak, Ackley, …) need to not only use their physical ability but also have the mental ability and discipline to make the necessary adjustments, will they be allowed the time to make these adjustments???