Who’s Cold This Week? Chris Carter

If you just watch the highlights, you might not agree with this choice. But if you watch the games (which I know most of you can’t), Chris Carter‘s overall body of work is lacking.

Chris Carter (Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)

And in his past ten games prior to Friday, Carter has even been colder than usual. The slugging outfielder has a .167 average in that stretch with 14 strikeouts in 36 at bats. However within that stretch, Carter has hit three home runs. And like most of his home runs this season, they have been impressive looking.

You also must put Carter’s home runs in their proper context. Only one of his home runs in the stretch I reviewed came in an Astros win. Now granted you can’t exactly penalize him for being on a losing team, but I also have a hard time putting stock in a home run hit with his team trailing by six runs in the ninth inning.

Perhaps the bigger problem I have with Carter in this stretch, is that he only has driven in two runners that were not himself. For the season if you take away his 22 home runs, he only has 34 other RBI’s. That is not the performance you look for out of someone you count on to be a run producer.

Obviously the major knock on Carter this season, aside from his 158 strikeouts, is that he is only hitting .210. But in fairness to him, he does walk a lot so at least he is getting on base at .309 clip. However, over his last ten games, he only has three walks which is just not enough.

I still think Carter has a future on this team, but I’m not sure what his role will be. We know we has power and can hit massive home runs. But he does not do that enough or drive in runs with a great enough frequency to make up for his poor batting average.