Finding Schierholtz

I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories, I tend to think they are convenient ways to cast blame elsewhere and are best left to drug addicts and political extremists. But there is a rumor going around the interwebs that I am prone to believe. The fact that I am introducing this theory to the interwebs in this post is irrelevant. What is relevant is that aliens have abducted Nate Schierholtz. I'll wait a moment for that to sink in... Got it yet? I mean c'mon people why are we not freaking out about this? I remember a time not to long ago when we were all in a collective #freenate movement long before that Belt guy took that mojo. A year ago he seemed to have it all. Speed? Check. Clutch hitting? Check. A mean game face? Check. A strong arm? Have you seen that arm? I'm surprised TSA lets him go on road trips with a cannon like that.

So where has that all gone? There is no way you can tell me it is anything other than aliens. There is no proof that it isn't aliens. Gone are the carefree days where he calmly steps the plate and launches a game winning hit. Gone are the days where he routinely embarrasses other teams with wicked outfield assists (ok, so that may be more of a factor that they learned not to challenge him). Long gone are the days where we see him in the lineup. This was supposed to be his year! He almost doubled his starts from 2010 to 2011 and should have been our regular right fielder, like 140 games. He should have been hitting .280 with a nice k/bb ratio. But that isn't happening! He looks lost out there, like a lost puppy.

His stats for the most part are what we would expect, but there is one key difference. Nate simply isn't hitting the ball. I don't mean for base-hits, I mean he just isn't making contact of ANY sort. His swing percentage for balls in the strike zone is down. Combine that with the fact that his whiff rate in the strike zone is down and you start to get an idea of what's going on. But hold on, it gets worse! Nate also used to be able to make contact out of the strike zone around 75% of the time. Not too shabby, but that has dropped to less that 65% this season. So lets see here... watches more strikes, misses more strikes, and he swings and misses out of the strike zone more. The number of pitches that are thrown in the strike zone are roughly the same, so it's fair to say that Nate simply isn't hitting the ball. 

So there you go... just as I thought, it was aliens. Aliens have abducted Nate Schierholtz and it has nothing to do with his plate discipline or ability to swing the bat.