Is The Moose Finally Loose?

I wanted to know how much to buy into Mike Moustakas's outstanding spring training. He is currently hitting .467/.561/.867 with four home runs. To see if he is doing anything is different, I looked at every one of his spring training at bats available on mlb.tv (not including last night) to see if I could find any changes. While there may be some small swing adjustments, his eye has improved immensely.

I went over each plate appearance and they are all listed out in detail at the end of the article. Here is the summary of what I saw.

• Not one foul pop up to the third baseman. Bizarre.
• He laid off some borderline pitches for called strikes. Also, he seemed to take a lot of first pitch strikes.He seems to be waiting for a good pitch to drive.
• Some swing and miss on breaking and off speed stuff especially late in the count.
• Still swings too much at pitches up in the zone.
• Extra note: Moustakas came to bat after Perez most of the time. Perez is chasing pitches way out of the zone a ton.

__________________All the plate appearances on MLB.TV_______________

March 22 vs Texas Rangers

vs Tommy Hanson - R
Walk
Hanson pulled a Duffy. He got Moose down 0-2 with two outside strikes and then threw four pitches not even close to the zone.

vs Tommy Hanson - R
Fly/Line Out
On 1-2 count fit a fly/line to center field (3.6 sec), shoe string grab by CF.

vs Tommy Hanson - R
Walk
Four pitches, one close.

March 20th vs Angles

vs Jered Weaver - R
Ground out
First pitch swinging on fastball down the middle

vs Jered Weaver - R
Strike out
Weaver's breaking pitches owned him on a called strike (curve) and a swinging strike (change) to end the at bat.

March 17th vs Rangers

vs. Matt Harrison - L
Double
Crushes a high hanging curve.

vs. Joe Saunders - L
Single
On a 3-2 count, he nails a high slider with no movement. Nice level swing.

vs. Joe Saunders - L
Walk
Chased high and inside to take count 0-2. Didn't swing a four pitches out of the zone (one foul).

March 13th vs Indians

vs. Zach McAllister - R
Single
On 1-2 count, took an outside fastball the opposite way.

vs. Zach McAllister - R
Ground out
Took a couple of close called strikes and then chased a curve into the dirt for weak contact.

vs. Bryan Price - R
Sac Fly Line Drive
Solid line drive on high fastball right to Jeff Francouer (who weak armed a throw to home in which Butler scored).

March 8th vs Brewers

vs. Marco Estrada - R
Pop up (shallow CF)
Some classic Moose here. Chased some high pitches and then skied on to CF.

vs. Marco Estrada - R
Fly out (deep CF)
Estrada just ate him up with off speed pitches.

vs. Jim Henderson - R
Single
On the first pitch, Moose lined a bullet off the first baseman's glove which could have went for extra bases had not put a glove on it.

March 5th vs Diamondbacks

vs. Patrick Corbin - L
Single
On the first pitch, outside fastball, he hits a soft blooper to CF.

vs. Patrick Corbin - L
Strikeout
One B.S. called strike. Chases slider in the dirt for strikeout.

vs. Joe Paterson - L
Home Run
No doubt home run. Took the first pitch right down the middle. The second pitch at the same location was a home run.