Batter’s Box: Need More CowBell

Quite a night for Cody Bellinger eh? With a 3-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 4 RBI night, Bellinger hit his 20th and 21st home runs of the year, making him the fastest...

Quite a night for Cody Bellinger eh? With a 3-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 4 RBI night, Bellinger hit his 20th and 21st home runs of the year, making him the fastest player to reach 21 home runs in his career. It's funny, for a short stretch, people were starting to get concerned about Bellinger, and understandably so. From May 30th to June 10th, Bellinger was batting .154 with just two home runs, it's understandable that people would start thinking the league was catching up with him. Then, from June 11th through now, Bellinger has hit .389 with eight home runs. So the question is, what can you expect from Bellinger for the rest of the season? Is he really this good, or should you sell high? As a big-time power hitter, Bellinger is going to be prone to slumps like he had during that .154-hitting stretch, that's just the nature of power hitters, but then he'll have stretches where he destroys the ball. I think Bellinger is right now what he is the rest of the season: an average in the .260s, maybe the .250s cause that 34% HR/FB rate should come down a bit and his 30% strikeout rate won't help, and tons of home runs. I'm betting Bellinger doubles his home run total by the end of the year while batting in the .260s the rest of the way. I don't think you can sell high on him (unless someone's stupidly buying this recent streak, thinking he's a .300+ hitter), because I think we know what he is right now, and what he is is pretty awesome.

Let's take a look at some of the other performances from Monday night:

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Ben Palmer

Senior columnist at Pitcher List. Lifelong Orioles fan, also a Ravens/Wizards/Terps fan. I also listen to way too much music, watch way too many movies, and collect way too many records.

3 responses to “Batter’s Box: Need More CowBell”

  1. TP says:

    I will take the over on Zunino’s avg being .220

  2. Turp says:

    Speaking of catchers, any projection on what to expect from Ramos the rest of the way? Sincerely, a sad Lucroy owner. (seriously, how could he be this bad in a contract year?)

    • Ben Palmer says:

      I think Ramos could be solid assuming he stays healthy. I’d expect an average in the .260s with probably 10 home runs or so. I think he’ll have a lower average than Lucroy but better power

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