Kansas City Royals: Sad and Costly Decline of Alex Gordon
By Joel Wagler
ALEX GORDON HASN’T BEEN STREAKY FOR THE KANSAS CITY ROYALS
Probably the worst thing about the last two season is that Alex Gordon hasn’t even been streaky. He has just been consistently bad.
In 2016, only in August did he hit over .215, when he hit a less than robust .265. In 2017 so far, he has hit over .191 in just two months, when he hit .231 in June and .232 in July.
To sum up, he has only hit above .232 for one month since he signed his contract, hit under .200 for four months, and under .216 in eight of the 11 months.
To make matters worse, this season his power has completely deserted him. In 2017, he has just five home runs, two triples, and 15 doubles in almost five months. Remember, this is a player who hit more than 70 extra base hits for two consecutive seasons in 2011 and 2012.
…he has only hit about .232 for one month since he signed his contract, hit under .200 for four months, and under .216 in eight of the 11 months.
He only has 88 total extra base hits over the last three seasons.
According to Brooks Baseball, Gordon is great when the ball is right down the middle, and just awful on all other pitch locations.
Not helping matters is the fact that, according to Fangraphs, Gordon has turned into a ground ball hitter. He is on pace to set a career high on Ground Ball Percentage at 43.8. Brooks Baseball’s batted ball chart seems to back these numbers up.
What to do now?