Astros.com, makers of articles like "Astros transitioning to promising future," brings us "Lee shakes off slow start, seeks power stroke." Sigh. Well, lets see what Carlos Lee (hitting .265/.314/.394 -- slow start over!) has to say about his paltry five homers in almost a half-season:
↵↵↵"It's been two years in a row. I don't know if I'm thinking about it or pressing myself to start good or trying to do too much. Right now, I feel where I need to be. I'm seeing the ball good. I've been hitting a lot of balls hard. I'm hitting line drives. I can't explain why I can't get the ball in the air."
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The thing is Carlos, you can totally get the ball in the air. Fly balls make up 43.7% of your balls in play, according to Fangraphs. That's right in line with the rest of your career. But the percentage of them that stay in the infield has nearly doubled: you hadn't hit more than 12% of your batted balls for pop-ups since 2005. Now you're at a whopping 19.8%. That ranks you third in baseball, behind only Mark Trumbo and Corey Patterson.
↵You know what else it means? You've lost your bat speed. So, you know, that's probably the reason. Hope you're enjoying your $18.5 million this year!
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