Dear Adam Moore: There Is A Left Field

by Jeff Sullivan on Aug 28, 2010 7:02 PM PDT in Seattle Mariners Stats

Adam Moore's 2009 spray chart between West Tennessee and Tacoma, via MinorLeagueSplits:

Adam Moore's 2010 spray chart with Seattle, via TexasLeaguers:

We've seen Moore hit a lot of balls hard the other way, and that's great. It's important for a righty to be able to go to right field. But Moore isn't Bret Boone. He isn't strong enough to make a living by peppering the right field bleachers. He needs to be able to pull the ball in the air if he wants to produce, and while he's shown some limited ability to do that in the minors, he hasn't done it in the bigs. He's been behind on a lot of pitches, and no hitter ever wants to be behind on anything.

It's also worth noting that the bulk of Moore's power appears to be to left-center field. This as opposed to, say, Jose Lopez, whose power is to straightaway left down the line. Safeco's left-center power alley is a complete and utter graveyard, so don't be surprised to see Moore have trouble hitting well at home, even if and when he starts hitting in other places.

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OK, I'll bite. I'm not wedded to any of this, so feel free to disparage me.

The M’s have never been real big in the backstop dept. (except a year or two of Wilson and Johjima). We’ve never had a catcher like the Twins have now. Moore is our future for now and I really don’t know who we could get for the same price going forward who would serve us better. I’m willing to listen here. Catcher is not a position I think we can solve in 2011. Someone who can catch (ie, not Rob Johnson) might be the best we can do. We’ve got bigger problems that can be solved. It’s entirely possible that Moore figures out how to hit in Safeco, develops the power to be successful, but all I expect is that he can catch the ball, and have the lowest catcher ERA in the AL.

by TrustBaseball on Aug 29, 2010 12:11 AM PDT reply actions

I don't know

His spray chart with the M’s doesn’t look too much different to me. He hasn’t yet pulled that many balls but he might just need some more BIP to even out the hit chart. I am a little surprised he hits so many groundballs to the left side of the infield but hardly hits any line drives or fly balls there.

Hopefully he can hit the other way with enough power to take advantage of RF down the line but I agree that left-center looks like its going to really hurt his power numbers. Luckily he is a catcher so the bar isn’t set too high for his offensive output.

by Edgar for Pres on Aug 29, 2010 3:23 PM PDT reply actions

Also

The two players aren’t even in the same ballpark skillwise but it would be great if Moore can fit into the Joe Mauer mold of hitter. I don’t think he’s nearly as good so I’d like to see him learn to pull the ball.

by Edgar for Pres on Aug 29, 2010 3:25 PM PDT up reply actions