Eight Crazy Nights

[Centerfield]

Lucas Duda over his last 8 games:

11 for 28 (.393), 3 BB, 1 2B, 9 HR, 12 RBI

I dub July 25 through August 2 "Dudakkah 2015".

[Edgy MD]

I'm going out on a limb and predicting our boy as player of the week.

[Frayed Knot]

He�s still a far cry from the 300/400/500 level he was at early in the year � that�s what happens when you hit .187 in June and then .178 in July.
But after bottoming out at 237/340/414 on July 23 he�s now upped his season slash numbers to 249/348/489 - and raising your slugging average 75 points in less than 2 weeks after 400+ PAs ain�t easy

What a streaky freaking season he's having. Both the mid-season downturn and then this recent revival occurred for no obvious reason.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'm converting to Dudaism.

[Fman99]

I think the downturn came immediately after he got doinked on the knee by a pitch at the tail end of May. His numbers went right into the can after that. I am guessing that it took much of June/July for the knee to stop bothering him, at which point he was able to start driving the ball again.

[Centerfield]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I'm converting to Dudaism.

It's a cool religion. On Fridays you have to start drinking 3 hours before game time.

[Ceetar]

Fman99 wrote: I think the downturn came immediately after he got doinked on the knee by a pitch at the tail end of May. His numbers went right into the can after that. I am guessing that it took much of June/July for the knee to stop bothering him, at which point he was able to start driving the ball again.

his exit velocity off the bat undeniably dropped after that, though it'd crept up again long before the last few weeks, but I wonder if he got into some bad habits as a result.

[Edgy MD]

It's probably both, with bad habits and physical discomfort feeding off each other.

And then making for a thick, mysterious mental soup inside that unfathomable psyche of his.

[Centerfield]

Adding some legitimate big league bats around him probably helped as well.

[Edgy MD]

I have to say, last night's homer was off a good pitch that caught more handle than barrel on the bat. NOBODY should have been able to muscle that one out. It's like he didn't want to be shown up by his teammates at his own game and found an extra ounce of Dudajuice in his system.

[nymr83]

his home-road splits are downright insane right now.

Citi - .296/.401/.663
Away - .194/.285/.288

I wonder if that has happened before for a full season for someone with enough ABs to qualify for the title. Even the Coors Field Greats have trouble matching that, the best i could find was Dante Bichette 1995/1996 but even he couldn't match that SLG% split.

[Ceetar]

can't figure out a way to query that in play index. If I had my DB up at home I could do it for previous years, but I think I lost that as well.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Fman99 wrote: I think the downturn came immediately after he got doinked on the knee by a pitch at the tail end of May. His numbers went right into the can after that. I am guessing that it took much of June/July for the knee to stop bothering him, at which point he was able to start driving the ball again.

That's about what I thought. I figgered he had some injury that didn't keep him out of the lineup, but hampered him.

Welcome back, Lucas.

Welcome back, New York Mets.

[Frayed Knot]

Plunked knee + bad form + an adjustment by pitchers to a total diet of off-speed stuff + mental problems caused by any and all of the above is probably as good an explanation as we could come up with.
But geez the change in him was like a switch that now has come back on just as quickly as it once shut off, and once it was off the slump lasted so long that you started to question whether he would ever come back.

[Edgy MD]

We really shouldn't overlook the importance of Lucas putting aside his dream of joining ZZ Top and losing the beard.

[Vic Sage]

it seems to me he's also laying off those low and outside sliders that he had previously been flailing at, so he's getting into hitter's counts more often.

[Edgy MD]

From the verge of being washed away, he's suddenly sixth in the league in homers, 14th in OPS.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

How are you doing it, Lucas?



"I swings the bats. I swings the bats like I's angry, and ball gets hurted. I like swings the bats! Yay!"

[Edgy MD]

"Richard, you promise me you're gonna look after Tommy here 'til he gets his feet wet."

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

This thread title should be sung to the tune of this song.

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