Since his return from the disabled list, Jose Tabata has been on a tear. He has been getting an extended look in right field to see if he's the guy that is the answer out there. It begs the question, is he the answer? I still am not sold on Tabata. I don't think he's the answer out in right field. I have come up with 3 reasons why.
1) He can't hit left handed pitching
At one time is his career Tabata was pretty good against left handed pitching but this season he's been bad. He crushes right handed pitchers as a right handed batter. I don't think he's a full time player. He could use a platoon partner that can hit lefties and that would drastically help the team on days that they face left handed pitching or late game when they bring in a tough lefty from the bullpen.
2) His injury history
Tabata has had plenty of injury troubles and I always question if he can ever stay healthy for a full season and he has troubles staying healthy long enough to make an impact and that bothers me. I'm uncertain if he can make it through the rest of the season without getting hurt again. He's a very risky player to have and he's not a guy a team should rely on in a playoff race because its always uncertain if he's healthy or not.
3) Lack of hustle(especially on defense)
Sometimes Tabata shows lack of hustle, especially when he's playing defense in the outfield. It seems like he doesn't try hard enough on defense. He's dogging it a lot. He tries much harder on offense than on defense. I don't know if injuries play into that but it's possible. His defense is a very risky factor to his game and its very unreliable. He has to be great on offense to make up for his below average defense. He always looks so uncomfortable out there. It's an undesirable part of his play.
I say Tabata is much better this year than he's been the last two years but he's not an everyday player in my opinion and he's a risky player to have and a hard guy to rely on.
No comments:
Post a Comment