00:00In the past, yes, they have gone through stretches like this at various points of different seasons.
00:05Last year was probably the most glaring example where they really struggled through the second half of the year for
00:10the most part.
00:11And, in my opinion, never really got out of it in the playoffs.
00:15Like, they were not a good offensive team in the postseason, but they did enough.
00:18And part of them doing enough was that Otani was still productive in little spurts.
00:22Of course, the difference right now is that when he cannot single-handedly drag you out of this kind of
00:30rut,
00:31like you said, it puts a lot more pressure, I think, on everybody else.
00:35Or maybe more to the point, it exposes some of the underlying flaws that the rest of the roster has
00:42been built with.
00:43When you look at the age, when you look at the fact that a lot of their right-handed hitters
00:48aren't really producing right now
00:50and aren't hitting left-handed pitching in the way they need to.
00:54Well, it's not on him, but this team was built in a way that kind of depends on Otani being
01:00like an MVP-level hitter.
01:02And when he's not, and everybody else isn't at their best, this is the kind of result you get.
01:08Because, like, look, this is not just like a mediocre stretch for them.
01:11Going back to, and I haven't even updated these numbers after tonight,
01:14but going back to, I think it's like April 21st now, after they left Denver last month,
01:19they're like 25th in batting average, they're 29th in slugging,
01:23they have the second-fewest home runs in the majors in that time,
01:25they have like an 89 WRC+, which, for our less analytically inclined crowd,
01:31that's like 11% below league average.
01:34Like, this is a team that shouldn't have any hitters, really, that are below league average producers,
01:39and as a whole lineup, they've been that way.
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