Article on Hanley Ramirez

[Vance Law]

Beltran had been in the AL before, Victornio had one good AL season and now he's not what he used to be, Houston was in the AL when Martinez left, Bautista had started in the AL... there are many names of NL players who came to the AL and played worse than they used to.

 

Victorino had a great season for Boston the only time he was healthy. So it was the 60 games in the AL that Bautista played (terribly) that allowed him to succeed with the Blue Jays after 4 years with Pittsburgh?

 

I honestly think the underlying "logic" for anyone who thinks that NL hitters can't hit in the AL is "I had my hopes up when the Sox signed Adam Dunn and when he had a terrible season I became angry and my brain kinda malfunctioned."

Edited December 2, 2015 by Vance Law

[Special K]

Victorino had a great season for Boston the only time he was healthy. So it was the 60 games in the AL that Bautista played (terribly) that allowed him to succeed with the Blue Jays after 4 years with Pittsburgh?

 

I honestly think the underlying "logic" for anyone who thinks that NL hitters can't hit in the AL is "I had my hopes up when the Sox signed Adam Dunn and when he had a terrible season I became angry and my brain kinda malfunctioned."

 

 

I think the Adam LaRoche failures also contribute to this logic. That being said, I think that's more of an inability to convert from a 1B to a full-time DH, rather than simply not being able to hit AL pitching.

[Vance Law]

I think the Adam LaRoche failures also contribute to this logic.

 

Sure. And I would again refer to it as "logic." Two guys in their mid-30s come over to DH for the White Sox and struggle, fans are overly emotionally affected by that, and then invent the conclusion that "career NL players can't hit in the AL." Not only ignoring all players who do not hit worse in the AL, but ignoring Adam Dunn hitting 41 and 35 home runs in his next 2 seasons.

[Vance Law]

That being said, I think that's more of an inability to convert from a 1B to a full-time DH, rather than simply not being able to hit AL pitching.

 

Yes. There you go. For some players, no doubt, it's a tough transition. Maybe for others it's not. Maybe it just takes a little time (see Adam Dunn Comeback Player of the Year 2012). People don't realize there are only like 5 or 6 good full-time DHs in baseball. It's a very small subset of players that are both excellent hitters, but who have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, through ability and/or age, that they're absolutely unplayable in the field. Ortiz, Fielder, A-Rod, Morales. White Sox were spoiled forever with Frank Thomas and Thome.