2012 Robinson Cano performance thread

[ThePinStripes]

OPS+ of 105, climbing nicely from the low 80's a week or two ago.

.500/ .529/1.000/1.529 over the last 17 PA.

[35Knucklecurve]

I just got finished watching the highlights on mlb.com. That blast was impressive - it had some serious hang time on it.

Pound for pound, he's probably one of the strongest guys out there.

[False1]

Finally signs of life from Cano. Keep it rolling.

[ThePinStripes]

and just like that, he's sitting with a .302/.350/.462/.812 slash line.

[nnysiny]

already leads the leagues in smiles

[DJ27]

and just like that, he's sitting with a .302/.350/.462/.812 slash line.

Wow, .302 and he is just starting up!

[Blazer]

April isn't even in the rear-view mirror.

[NelsonMuntz]

His swing looks great right now.

[yarosh25]

just like boos for All-Star at an opponent ballpark, minimal amount of discussion is reserved for best Yankees players. Cano thread joins Mariano thread, Robertson thread last year, etc in this distinguished category

[4trainEddie]

falling asleep on base is his major weakness and the whole league knows it.
he fell for the old fake the throw to 3rd then throw it to first play last year.
bet he would fall for this one too......http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highsc...104518770.html

[AuroraBomberalis]

His bases loaded at bat tonight typifies what's wrong with him (pathetic RBI total for a cleanup hitter) and this team - Valverde looked like Rick Ankiel out there (already hit 2 batters in the inning), but Cano swings on a 1-0 pitch in on the hands, breaking his bat and popping up.

[dabomb2045]

His bases loaded at bat tonight typifies what's wrong with him (pathetic RBI total for a cleanup hitter) and this team - Valverde looked like Rick Ankiel out there (already hit 2 batters in the inning), but Cano swings on a 1-0 pitch in on the hands, breaking his bat and popping up.

Hate to say it, but he's been a dissapointment this year. This is Cano's team now...and he really needs to take that next step to being "the man". I keep waiting for him to put it all together, but there is still inconsistency there. His swing is so fluid, he should be hitting well over .300 almost every year and having .900+ OPS seasons.

[AnA-bombforA-rod]

His bases loaded at bat tonight typifies what's wrong with him (pathetic RBI total for a cleanup hitter) and this team - Valverde looked like Rick Ankiel out there (already hit 2 batters in the inning), but Cano swings on a 1-0 pitch in on the hands, breaking his bat and popping up.

That was such a horrible AB. How do you not tak a pitch there? And Granderson wasn't much better.

[AuroraBomberalis]

That was such a horrible AB. How do you not tak a pitch there? And Granderson wasn't much better.

Oh yes, Grandy was just as bad, although in his (very light) defense, the pitch to Grandy was SO fat, right down the middle and should have been crushed. And he did just miss it, really. Still, no way he should have been swinging in that situation.

If you watched Leyland in the dugout, you could see that he was terrified. Valverde was on the ropes, Leyland was ready to cry... but the Yankees were the ones who acted like they were pinned into a corner. Tex was the only good at bat that inning.

[rajah]

Cano is a very frustrating ball player. His baseball intelligence falls very short of his talent. His swinging at that pitch in that situation with no strikes on him cannot be excused. When is he going to mature? Apparently, never. As beautiful as his swing is, as talented as he in the field, I don't have the same feeling for him that I do for smart players like Jeter and Arod and many others.

I wonder if the coaching staff is going to talk to him about that at bat.

[TheStraw]

Apparently you guys were watching a different Robinson Cano than the one I did in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Not sure what is going on with him this year..it's obviously a combination of mental and bad luck. He can't possibly continue to play this bad the entire season with men on base. They need him to be himself, he is the one killing them more than anyone else this season. I can think of at least three separate instances where he has come up in a pressure situation that meant winning or losing the game with the bases loaded and had a terrible at bat.

[AuroraBomberalis]

I can think of at least three separate instances where he has come up in a pressure situation that meant winning or losing the game with the bases loaded and had a terrible at bat.

I can think of three in the last WEEK

[teknetic]

He came off a pretty monster month of May. I'll chalk it up to a bad AB -- it happens, but his numbers w/ RISP are fairly poor (he isn't alone, though).

[rajah]

My point is not that he, like others, is not doing well right now with RISP. My point is that he did not think about the situation and discipline himself based on how the pitcher is throwing. Had he swung at that pitch with a 2-2 count or against a pitcher who had not shown a total absence of control and then popped it up, it would be failing physically, but not mentally. My point is the mental failure.

[False1]

He came off a pretty monster month of May. I'll chalk it up to a bad AB -- it happens, but his numbers w/ RISP are fairly poor (he isn't alone, though).

Fairly poor? They're actually atrocious (.128 / .263 / .213). He was a monster with RISP last year, but was pretty bad in '10 and poor in '09 too. As much flack as A-Rod used to get for RISP woes, Cano has gotten off easy.

[Eldee5]

http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2012/06/0...eighth-inning/

• Robinson Cano has decided to participate in the Home Run Derby again this year, and he’ll serve as the American League team captain after winning the thing last year. “I would like to take Granderson, but I don’t know if he wants to do it,” Cano said. “I haven’t talked to him yet. Besides that, I haven’t thought of anybody yet. But I might in the next few days.”

• Cano said he fully intends to have his father pitch to him again this year. “Oh yeah, definitely,” Cano said. “Never change your pitcher.”

[EvanJ]

He doubled today which puts him on pace to have 60 doubles which was last done in 1936.

[bomber999]

It's very disconcerting how much Cano has regressed this year hitting with RISP. He has more natural talent than pretty much anyone in the game today, yet too often he has terrible ABs and seems to have no situational approach to his hitting. He seems at times to play below his talent level. He needs to step up, or he is destined never to be an elite player.

[GimeMoMuny]

It's very disconcerting how much Cano has regressed this year hitting with RISP. He has more natural talent than pretty much anyone in the game today, yet too often he has terrible ABs and seems to have no situational approach to his hitting.

I agree. In my opinion, there's a correlation there; when he's not hitting well, his go-to instinct is his fantastic plate coverage, which in turn has a negative effect on his selectivity.

Pitchers seem to be exploiting his impatience and getting him to chase too many borderline pitches, and he just isn't roping them right now. It's a bad cycle, but he'll break it.

He's also the Yankee that seems to be hurt the most by an ump's bad call when he takes a pitch due to that lack of selectivity, imo.

[grizy]

Situational hitting is a rare skill (nowadays). Most guys are better off just approaching ABs the same way every time.

Even for those rare guys who do have that skill (Japanese players tend to be good at this for whatever reason), the difference is small, once you adjust for contact abilities anyway.

Cano should just stick to his usual game plan. See the ball, hit the ball if he thinks he can smash it (that includes quite a few pitches out the zone with his coverage)