What should be done about Josh Hamilton?

I don’t want to write this. I don’t want to write anything bad about Josh Hamilton. After what he did last year, Josh gets a lot of leeway.

But wow. I didn’t think he would be this bad.

A few stats just to give you an idea of how Josh has done since the All-Star Break: .158/.186/.228

That’s two extra-base hits (1 HR, 1 2B) in 15 games. Yikes.

Josh doesn’t even look good at the plate – he swings at way too many bad pitches and not enough good ones.

In his defense, there are a couple of reasons why Josh could be struggling with his numbers: 1. He’s still hurt. Josh did come back a lot quicker from his procedure than most players do. He could be in a significant amount of pain which could be contributing to his struggles. 2. His BABIP. Josh’s batting average on balls in play is a ridiculously low .262, which is bound to come up with more playing time, which means more hits. That does not, however, explain the complete lack of home runs, which don’t factor into BABIP.

This could just be a dreadful slump. If Josh could have a game where he had multiple hits, that might get him going mentally. I’m sure there’s also some form of pressing going on with Josh – he wants to be the thunder in the middle of the order so this team can win, so he is trying way too hard. I’m not sure why he’s been so bad at the plate (although his defense has been so good that he’s worth .5 wins above a replacement player), but maybe that has something to do with it.

So the question is this: What do you do with Josh?

Do you send him back down to the minors? Put him on the DL (because he just hasn’t recovered from that injury)? Or just ride it out?

Through the greatness of Fangraphs, we can see here just about everything you could possibly want to know about Josh Hamilton’s hitting statistics. Josh isn’t hitting as many line drives (19% vs. 21%), he’s striking out more (25% this year, 20% last year), he can’t seem to hit any type of off speed pitches (although he seems to be okay on fastballs), he’s swinging at a lot more pitches (59% this year vs. 55% last year) and making far less contact this year (70%) than last year (74%).

Lots of numbers there, but the point is that Josh has been worse this year in just about every conceivable way with the bat. Probably didn’t require all of those statistics to tell you that, as anyone who’s watched Josh play this year could tell you that he has been awful, but the question is why. Has he been awful because of injuries? Probably. Josh has really been banged up this year, although he says he’s healthy now. There was really only one week that Josh looked like himself, which was the week in which the Rangers won all of their games.

Beginning May 12, the Rangers ripped off six straight wins at home against Seattle and the Angels to post a seven-game win streak. Those six games (Josh exited the final one with an injury after crashing into the centerfield wall) were really the only games where Josh seemingly looked like himself. He went 5 for 21 with 3 HR, 9 RBI, 4 BB and 8 Ks. That was Josh’s best stretch of the season, which is good in terms of power, but not great in terms of average.

In the most recent series against the Mariners, Josh had two hits in 13 at-bats with a walk. He didn’t strike out once, and he had three line drives. Josh’s line drive rate isn’t really horrible, but it’s definitely not good. Only 12 players in the majors have line drive rates of 23% or better, so Josh is really not all that bad in that category.

The problem is the strikeouts. If Josh could find it within him to take a few more pitches – it’s not going to kill you to take a few pitches in the strike zone – and wait for his pitch, his stats would look a whole lot better.

Josh isn’t going anywhere unless an injury comes up. All that needs to happen is for Josh to take a few more pitches and swing at a few less pitcher’s pitches, or at least foul them off. If he does that, I’ve got a good feeling that Josh Hamilton will be able to help this offense tremendously. The Rangers don’t need the Josh Hamilton of 2008. Would they love it if he showed up? Sure. But they just need a guy who’s going to do better than the Josh Hamilton that’s in there now. If they get that, they might have a chance to catch the unconscious Angels.