Astros: 3 struggling batters on the verge of a breakouts

2. George Springer

The only person who is as notoriously streaky as George Springer is Kyle Tucker, but for Springer, he’s leveraged that streakiness into such superlatives as World Series MVP, World Series champion, and multiple-time all-star.

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Springer’s streakiness is far more often in the realm of dominance, and his dominance at the plate has not yet clicked this year, though we’re starting to see glimpses of it, if only he could stay healthy and off the injury list.

For Springer, we don’t need to compare him to anyone else, we just need to compare him to himself, and that’s where I get my optimism of a breakout from. He isn’t swinging at anything he wouldn’t ordinarily swing at. He isn’t reaching. He isn’t looking at strikes.

What looks to be the problem is that Springer is getting too pull happy. He is pulling the ball far more than ever before (54%) and going opposite field far less than ever before (just 13%). That, in turn, is leading to fewer line drives than ever before and more fly balls than ever before.

His exit velocity is down, his barrel percentage is down, and his launch angle is way up. This is the case of a line-drive hitter getting under the ball.

Give it time. He’ll sort it out. Speaking of which, on to No. 1.