Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Hosmer needs to be that Guy

Last week Fox Sports Kansas City's Jeffrey Flanagan brought us this article on Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer. Here's the money quote from the Royals Gold Glover.
"One of the biggest things George told me was it's a battle between you and the pitcher and you might not get him the first time or the second time, but you've got to know that deep down he's not going to get off that mound without you doing some type of damage to him." 
Over the final four and a half months of the 2013 season, Hosmer hit a blistering .317/.363/.484 with 16 home runs and 68 RBI. By the end of the year he had taken a .244/.320/.313 line and lifted it all the way to .302/.353/.448. It isn't a coincidence that the Royals surge over the final few months of the season happened to take place as Hosmer developed into the star that the Royals thought that they had developed.

The good news for the Royals is that their former first round pick's success doesn't appear to be flukey given the quality of his batted ball frequencies. Based off Fangraphs' expected BABIP caculator his .335 BABIP is actually worse than his xBABIP of .338. This is not necessarily to say that he should have been better in 2013, but that his results do appear to be an actual reflection of his performance last season, unlike 2012 when his BABIP was the reflection of incredibly poor luck.

It has been said before, but if the Royals are going to take the next step and go from being an above average team to a good or great team, someone is going to need to be a star. The Royals need a guy that can carry the lineup. From the moment Kansas City selected Hosmer with he 3rd overall pick in the 2008 draft, he has been expected to be that guy. Now the Royals need him to be that guy.

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