I'm pasting my comments on HRam from the Royals' series thread.
I'm intrigued by Harold Ramirez, particularly his ability to put the bat on the ball. I know, I know, small sample, but he almost never swings and misses even on pitches outside the zone.
In his nine at-bats with the Indians, in which he has four hits and four RBI's, his outside-the-zone swing rate is 53.3%. IOW, he swings at more than half of the pitches he gets that are out of the zone. He should be an awful hitter who strikes out a lot. Last night, for example, Amed Rosario struck out swinging three times on pitches way out of the zone.
But in fact, Ramirez has a miniscule swing-and-miss percentage of 7.1%. His contact rate on swings outside the strike zone is 75%. That's crazy. Three out of four times he hacks at a bad pitch he gets wood on it. What about when he swings at a pitch IN the strike zone? 100%. Small sample, but for his career it's 87.4%. And his career contact rate outside the zone is 65.5%. This guy has insane bat-to-ball ability.
There's a reason he is so undisciplined. He hates to strike out and doesn't want to risk EVER getting called out on strikes. From Hoynes' column...
"Ramirez said he hates striking out, and when he gets to a two-strike count, he takes steps to avoid doing so."
Like swinging at every pitch and either putting it in play or fouling it off. Imagine if this guy could back off the aggressiveness just a bit, say to where he's swinging outside the zone on only 35% or thereabouts instead of 53%. He could be a pretty damn good hitter.
His most impressive hit was against Josh Staumont, who came in having allowed one earned run in 14.1 innings. The guy was throwing 98 mph with a killer changeup. With the score tied in the 8th, nobody out and Franmil on second, Ramirez got a 2-2 fastball on the outside corner at 96 mph. He lined it down the first base line for a double that scored the go-ahead run and set up a big inning. Just an awesome piece of 2-strike hitting against one of the best relievers in the game so far this season.
If Ramirez can be just a little more disciplined in his pitch selection he could be a valuable contributor with the stick. Even if he continues to hack away like a maniac he'll be better than what we've been trotting out there.
In addition, I would say he lacks power in the same way Naylor lacks power - they don't elevate the ball much. They're line drive hitters. I think their hitting styles are very similar but from opposite sides of the plate. Both are very strong and spray mostly line drives and ground balls from sideline to sideline.
He's this year's Domingo Santana - a guy who had some offensive success with another organization and was available for some reason. Well, Santana didn't work out last year but I think HRam will do a lot better. If there's anything "freakish" about him it's his ability to put the bat on the ball, but he gets himself out chasing bad pitches. If he evers acquires the plate discipline to lay off balls well out of the zone he could be one heck of a hitter because he hits everything in the zone and a lot of it right on the screws.
The term "butcher" does seem to accurately describe his defense, however. But with speed in the 92nd percentile of major league players I'm hoping he can outrun some of his mistakes. We can always DH him and put Reyes in right.
