Do you have any idea what happened to Edgardo Alfonzo’s power? He seems to have misplaced it somewhere… Not even one dinger so far this season. Is he hurt?
First of all, I don’t have Alfonzo’s ear. I may have missed something but I haven’t seen any explanations for Edgardo’s powerlessness this spring. If you checked the career stats at the link above, Edgardo’s slugging percentage this year is lower than it was last year, even though his average is .060 higher.
And, supposedly, he feels healthy.
Well, he did have a problem with his biceps a few weeks ago, and sat out a game, but that wasn’t supposed to affect his hitting–just his throwing.
Throwing, of course, is the biggest challenge when shifting from second base to third base. It’s a longer throw and usually has to be made faster. If the hard thing about shifting from third to second is learning the pivot (as Alfonzo did after he came up), moving the other way the challenge is to adjust to balls that reach you faster, yet have to be thrown faster, too.
Supposedly, Alfonzo is healthy. Supposedly, the back problems that have affected much of his professional career are behind him. (No pun intended).
I don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds like it might be. I would suggest that the Mets’ offense has been having a hard time getting going, but when it does there is ample time for Edgardo to get his 23 homers. I’d keep my eye on this, but I wouldn’t be too worried just yet.