1/9/2024 0 Comments Red sox news and rumors todayBut he also wasn’t operating at full capacity for most of the past two seasons. The change in O’Neill’s swing decisions and contact are significant enough they can’t be accidental it’s almost certain he - or one of his coaches - decided he needed to take a bit off his swing in order to cut down on strikeouts. Here is O’Neill’s one good season (2021) up against what he, Harper, and García accomplished in 2023: The problem is that for the past two seasons, O’Neill hasn’t done enough damage when he hits the ball to offset for all the swing and miss. Harper walks a lot more than O’Neill and strikes out a lot less, but just looking at O’Neill’s plate discipline numbers compared to García’s - even the new and improved García who took a leap last season - there’s not a lot of difference between the two. There are hitters, like Adolis García and Bryce Harper, who screw themselves into the ground when they swing and don’t make a ton of contact on the whole. His contact rate is 11th-worst, and his Z-Contact rate is 15th-worst. O’Neill’s career strikeout rate is an even 30.0%, which is the seventh-highest out of 240 players who have batted at least 1,500 times in the past six seasons. The big problem with O’Neill is that - much as you can’t steal first base - you have to make contact with the ball in order to hit home runs. It’s ironic that the Cardinals had no more use for him, because the last time a guy this muscular was deemed expendable, Sylvester Stallone made four movies about it. Power has never been a problem for the 28-year-old, who is listed at 5-foot-11 and 200 pounds, of which about 198 pounds is biceps and quads. But that one season accounts for almost a third of O’Neill’s career major league playing time and more than half of his career WAR. 286/.352/.560 with 34 home runs and 15 stolen bases and won a Gold Glove for his work in left field. In parts of six seasons, O’Neill cut a mercurial figure with the Cardinals. Louis in a one-for-one challenge trade for Gonzales. Which is a real drag, by the way, because Larry Walker is also from Maple Ridge, meaning O’Neill was basically doomed from the start to be the second-best corner outfielder from his own hometown.īefore he could make his big league debut, O’Neill was sent to St. O’Neill got his start in the Seattle Mariners system, where he was something of a local favorite, having grown up less than three hours away in Maple Ridge, British Columbia.
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