quote:
Pearson didn't get alot of hits or at bats before conference last season. He didn't look great. Good approach, though.

He looks disinterested so far this year. Approach has not been as good as last year's. Something is off.

Something is definitely off, and it’s weird. There’s no bigger fan of Pearson on here than me. I went to West Monroe, played a year with his dad, and have been keeping up with him since he was a freshman in high school. I predicted before last season began that he would wind up hitting his way into the every day lineup and was right. And you could tell Jay loved him because he was getting so many PH ABs early on. He was the 1st bat off the bench in just about every game he didn’t start until he did wind up hitting his way into the everyday lineup. Jay was determined to give him every opportunity to do so until he finally did.

But he had a terrible summer, fall, spring, and beginning to this season. Yes, his approach is always good, but he just can’t seem to find the barrel for whatever reason. Even his double last night, while a nice swing to hit it the other way, wasn’t barreled up. He didn’t hit it very hard (exit velo couldn’t have been over 95), he just put a good swing on it, and it found grass.

Our highest potential is probably for last year’s Pearson to emerge and take the LF spot. But there’s a plenty big enough sample size going back to the summer that says that’s not likely. And his only having 15 PAs this deep into the season with all the blowouts we’ve been in says something about Jay’s lack of confidence he will turn into last year’s version of himself, which is who he is.

That’s why this is so confusing and indicates something is off. I don’t know if he changed his swing for some reason and hasn’t found it yet or if he’s battling a nagging injury we don’t know about or what. Maybe he’s got a girlfriend and isn’t living in the cage like he was. But something’s definitely not right with him, and I can’t figure it out. Hopefully he and Jay do before the end of the season.