Last night Pensacola Blue Wahoos catcher Kyle Skipworth hit a home run for the fifth straight game. It was also his sixth home run in his last eight games.
That’s a huge amount of power over the last week and a few days. The five straight games with a home run is just one short of the Southern League record held by former big leaguer Derrek Lee, who homered in six straight games in 1996 for the Memphis Chicks.
Skipworth has worked on changing his mechanics recently, saying this earlier this week:
Working with a new load, almost like a mini leg kick … I’m early and on time a lot more often,” Skipworth said. “With the advanced media, you can see so many different swings. I might see or try to emulate, and it might not work, but when something works, you generally feel it.
Skipworth is certainly feeling it right now. At least when he makes contact. Since July 7th began, a span of eight games, he has six home runs and a double. Seven hits and all have gone for extra-bases. In the 31 plate appearances in that time he has also struck out 14 times (45% of the time he’s stepped to the plate).
From the same article linked above, Skipworth also says this:
I think it’s just, I’m ready to go from pitch one. I don’t necessary go up there taking a pitch,” he said. “This Montgomery staff is aggressive and they attack you, you have to be ready for pitch one. We’ve been ready to go and aggressive this series.
While the idea of taking a pitch simply to take a pitch isn’t a good plan. A hitter shouldn’t take pitches that they can drive. But perhaps it’s the aggressive approach that has held the catcher back at the plate. His approach at the plate has led to him striking out over 30% of the time at ever stop of the way in the minor leagues with the lone exception of rookie ball in 2008.
There’s no question that Kyle Skipworth has big time power when he hits the ball. It’s one of the reasons he was selected 3rd overall in the 2008 draft by the Marlins. The 4.5 strikeout-to-walk ratio has really held him back throughout his career though.
He’s currently having the best year of his career, and it’s not particularly close. Coming into 2015 the highest OPS he had ever had in a given year was in 2010 when he topped .700 for the only time in his career, posting a .727 OPS in the Marlins system. In a much more limited capacity, just 156 plate appearances this season (mostly in Pensacola – but 30 with Louisville), the catcher is hitting .244/.325/.511, good for an .836 OPS.
That .836 OPS comes with several big red flags though. First, is a slightly low walk rate, just under 7.6%. On it’s own, that isn’t a giant issue, but when it’s coupled with a 40.3% strikeout rate, it becomes a larger issue. That inability to make contact is a major issue moving forward. His batting average on balls in play is also sitting at .379, which is rather high and far higher than he’s ever been in his career (he’s only posted a BABIP over .300 once in his minor league career, back in 2010).
There’s no doubt that the new hitting mechanics are helping Kyle Skipworth hit the ball harder and the home run explosion over the last 10 days is great to see. But the next step is going to need to be figuring out how to make more contact. The inability to put the bat on the ball has been a major problem throughout his career and finding a way to lower that rate below 30% is going to be needed for him to take that next step in offensive production.