What a Waste

I’ve more or less stopped writing about Adam Engel because he’s dead to me, or at least his bat is.  But how can you ignore someone who puts on a clinic in centerfield the way Engel did the first two games of this week’s Yankees-Sox series on the South Side?

In the first game, Engel challenged the wall to deny Greg Bird a three-run homer.  The next game, he jumped even higher to bring back a line drive by Kyle Higashioka.  Two plays good for four runs saved.  Take that, Willie Mays.

Here’s the sad part:  Mays at the age of 41 hit better than Engel at the age of 26.  If Engel could hit .250 the way Mays did in 1972, Sox fans would go wild in jubilation.  Unfortunately, Engel right now is batting .217 compared to Mays’ .211 as a 42-year old part-time player for the Mets in 1973.

Talent like Engel flashes in the field is rare.  I can’t remember anyone for the Sox playing that position better, and all the metrics point to Engel has one of the best outfield defenders in all of baseball.  But he can’t hit.  Upper cut, upper cut, lunge outside, take a called third strike:  it gets monotonous after a while.  What to do?

If the Sox were my team, I’d have Engel going through eight hours of hitting instruction a day with his batting coach; I think we have one, though you’d never know it from looking at Engel or  Tim Anderson (.240 BA, 106 strikeouts in 408 AB) and Yoan Moncada (.218 BA, 163 strikeouts in 418 AB).  Anyway, I’d level out that swing and teach plate discipline every day, game in and game out until Mr. Engel got it.  If nothing else, I’d make him bunt for a hit at least once a game at the risk of a fine if he didn’t lay a bunt down.  Then, once every two games after he showed some progress.

But that’s just me, and the White Sox are ever so much smarter.