A chief complaint with Brian Dozier ever since he arrived in the big leagues is that he does not use the whole field.
Chosen in the eighth round of the 2009 draft out of Southern Miss, Dozier has well exceeded expectations for him. But his reputation as a pull hitter has come back to haunt him at times when he is not hitting well.
Dozier hit .236/.307/.444 with 28 home runs last year, earning him his first and only All-Star appearance, but struggled in the second half.
Expected to be a leader in the clubhouse this year, he hit .191/.276/.340 in April and .215/.315/.316 in May, likely hampering his ability to lead the team and was listed as one of the many issues for the sub-.333 Twins this season.
“Something changed for Dozier on June 1, as he went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk on the first day of the month,” writes Michael Beller of SI.com.
“He hit his sixth homer of the season on June 2, and his seventh five days later. Dozier closed out the month with a slash line of .369/.435/.728 and eight homers. He had more multi-hit games in June (11) than in April and May combined (six), and nearly twice as many extra-base hits (19 to 10).”
Beller breaks down Dozier’s pull-swing tendencies and explains his return to form using a series of graphs and .gifs on his latest piece for SI.com. It’s a must-read for those trying to understand Dozier’s resurgence.
“There’s really no question here—when Dozier squares a ball, it’s going to left field,” writes Beller.
“It’s typically hard to have as much success as Dozier has enjoyed with this extreme a pull tendency, but he has been so good when pulling the ball, in fact, that it’s a red flag when he isn’t doing so comfortably more than 50% of the time.”
[Sports Illustrated]
