Series Review: Billy Hamilton

Over the past few days I sat down and watched some games on Milb.tv when Bakersfield was in San Jose. It was a three game series and Billy Hamilton made the most of it. He went 6 for 13 with 4 walks and 1 strikeout in the series.

Observations

Hamilton was incredibly patient at the plate in this series. He looked at plenty of strikes, but he swung at maybe 3 pitches outside of the zone in the series and one of them was for a hit. All of his hits were singles, which isn’t a surprise since there isn’t much power in his game. He hit one pretty good, but it was to dead center and was caught about 350 feet from the plate. He only bunted twice in the series, for a single and an out. The second bunt was good, splitting the P/3B area. A great play may have been able to get him, but it goes for a hit 9 out of 10 times. There was a lot of really solid contact from Hamilton in this series with multiple line drives and even a few others that were stung on the ground. The best thing that I saw in the series though, was that not once was he off balance at the plate and he seemed to have a good read on every pitch that came to the plate. In the past and even a few times since this series, I have seen him struggle in this area, but he was completely on top of his game in this series.

Pitch by pitch breakdown

Pitch	Type	Location	Result	Play Result	P	Notes
1	FB	High Outside	Take	Ball	RH	Showed Bunt
2	FB	High Inside	Take	Ball	RH	Showed Bunt
3	FB	Low Middle	Take	Ball	RH
4	FB	Middle Middle	Take	Called K	RH
5	FB	Low Inside	Take	Ball	RH	Showed Bunt
6	CH	Low Middle	Swings	Swing K	RH
7	FB	Low Inside	Take	Ball	RH
8	FB	Low Outside	Take	Called K	RH
9	FB	Low Dirt	Take	Ball	RH
10	CH	Middle Inside	Take	Called K	RH	Cut over the plate (strikeout)
11	FB	Inside High	Take	Called K	RH
12	CH	Middle Inside	Take	Called K	RH
13	FB	Middle Middle	Swings	LD Single	RH	Single to CF
14	FB	Low Outside	Swings	Foul	RH
15	CH	Middle Low	Take	Called K	RH	Runner CS ends inning
16	FB	Middle Inside	Bunt	Out to P	RH	3.56 to 1B – Bunt just off center of P
17	FB	Middle Low	Swings	FB out to LF	RH	Lazy Flyball to LF
18	FB	Outside Low	Take	Ball	LH
19	FB	Middle Low	Take	Called K	LH
20	FB	Middle Middle	Bunt	Single	LH	Bunt to pitcher, goes to 2B on throw. Pitcher fall on throw to 1B and threw it 15 feet wide. Decent bunt.
21	FB	Middle Low	Swings	Single	LH	LD single to CF
22	FB	Inside High	Take	Ball	LH
23	FB	Middle Middle	Swings	FO to CF	LH	Fly out about 350 feet to CF
24	FB	Middle Low	Swings	Foul	LH
25	FB	Middle Outside	Swings	PU 1B	LH	Pop up to 1B
26	IBB	IBB	IBB	IBB	LH
27	IBB	IBB	IBB	IBB	LH
28	IBB	IBB	IBB	IBB	LH
29	IBB	IBB	IBB	IBB	LH	Trying to set up the double play in a tie game in the 9th.
30	FB	High Outside	Take	Ball	LH
31	FB	Middle Outside	Take	Called K	LH
32	FB	Middle Low	Swings	LD Single	LH	Single to LF
33	FB	Low Outside	Take	Ball	RH
34	FB	Low Outside	Take	Called K	RH
35	CH	Middle Low	Swings	Swing K	RH
36	FB	Middle dirt	Take	Ball	RH
37	FB	Middle High	Swings	GB to 1B	RH	Hit it hard, fielders choice at 2B
38	FB	Middle Inside	Take	Called K	LH
39	FB	Middle Outside	Take	Ball	LH
40	FB	Middle Outside	Swings	Foul	LH
41	FB	Middle High	Swings	LD Single	LH	Single to CF
42	FB	Outside Middle	Take	Ball	LH
43	CH	Middle Low	Take	Called K	LH
44	FB	Middle Low	Take	Ball	LH
45	CH	Middle Low	Take	Ball	LH
46	FB	Middle Low	Take	Ball	LH	Walk
47	FB	Low Outside	Take	Called K	LH
48	FB	High Outside	Bunt	Ball	LH	Pulled the bat back
49	FB	Low Inside	Bunt	Ball	LH	Pulled the bat back
50	FB	Low Outside	Swings	GB Single	LH	Chopper up the middle
51	FB	Low Outside	Take	Ball	LH
52	FB	Low Middle	Take	Ball	LH
53	FB	Low Outside	Take	Ball	LH
54	FB	Middle Outside	Take	Called K	LH
55	FB	High Outside	Take	Ball	LH	Walk
56	FB	Low Inside	Take	Ball	RH
57	FB	High Outside	Take	Ball	RH
58	FB	High Outside	Take	Ball	RH
59	FB	Middle Inside	Take	Ball	RH	Walk
60	FB	Middle Outside	Take	Ball	RH
61	SL	Low Outside	Take	Called K	RH
62	FB	Low Inside	Take	Called K	RH
63	SL	Low Outside	Take	Ball	RH
64	FB	Low Outside	Take	Ball	RH
65	FB	Low Inside	Swings	GO to 2B	RH	Looked safe at first to me

Final Notes

Hamilton has been experiencing by far his best season as a pro this year and I would not be surprised if the series in San Jose wasn’t among the best he had played all year on the offensive side of the ball. While he didn’t show any power, he hit the ball with some authority, showed off a good bunt and was very patient and balanced at the plate. When Hamilton is ‘in the zone’ like this, it shows just the kind of offensive player that he can be in the future. I still wonder how his walk rate will fare as he continues to move up and pitchers can throw strikes more consistently and don’t have to worry about his power truly hurting them, but as he showed in this series, if you do throw him strikes he can hit them.

Video (not from this series)

Will the Cincinnati Reds trade Billy Hamilton?

Billy Hamilton and what could be