Yuni wasn't actually terrible in May

Like the rest of the Seattle Mariners, Yuniesky Betancourt royally stunk at the beginning of May.  But thanks to hitting over .400 in the week plus, his stats for the month of May aren’t that bad.  Here they are:

.283/.290/.414 (slash stats), 7 2B, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 1 BB, 6 K, 1SB, .286 BABIP, -0.27 WPA, 0.03 Clutch

One reason for Yuni’s recent success is that he’s back to hitting ninth.  John McLaren tried to capitalize on Yuni’s early success by batting him 6th and 7th.  Yuni responded by getting three singles in 19 at-bats.  Now’s he’s back in the enviable position of hitting in front of the Mariners’ best hitter, Ichiro.

The 7 point difference in batting average and on base percentage shows that Yuni needs to walk a bit more.  After getting three walks in April, he got one in May, and that was on Friday.   The Mariners’ website posted a 15-paragraph article in the wake of that cataclysmic event.  There were a few quotes from Yuni:

“It’s just something that I’ve just grown up with,” he said. “A lot of Latin players have that. Some hitters are patient, but some are just more aggressive.”

Carlos Peña (who has a tilde in his last name, in case you speed read over that) has a higher OBP than Yuni (.328 to .303) despite having a batting average of .220.  He’s walked TWENTY NINE TIMES THIS YEAR.  And has a tilde in his last name.

“Sure, I’d like to be more patient and take a few balls and get on base more so I can help the team,” he said.

At least Yuni knows what he needs to work on.  If Yuni can keep hitting .400 for the rest of the season but walking just once a month, I think everyone would agree that it would be a successful season.

Another spot where Yuni needs work is hitting on the road.  His home/road splits so far are pretty huge.  At Safeco Field, his slash stats are .323/.337/.500, while away from the Northwest, he’s hitting just .260/.268/.344.  This difference, in less than 30 games at in each grouping, is based, like most of Yuni’s offense, on his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) which is .326 at home, and .270 on the road.  Safeco is a pitcher’s park where some of the Mariners struggle, but Yuni seems to be spraying and blooping the ball (and tucking a few over the left field fence) there a lot better.

Yuni’s fielding numbers, sadly, have really plummeted.  Here are his to-date stats:

7 errors, .970 fielding percentage, .780 RZR, 7 OOZ

These numbers are from The Hardball Times, which doesn’t break down stats by month (I think), but in May Yuni made 3 errors (not terrible), so his fielding percentage went up 2 points (this is nothing), but because he only made one out of zone (OOZ) play (ouch), his revised zone rating (RZR) dropped 43 points (baaaaad).  Right now only Julio Lugo has a worse RZR than Yuni, among shortstops.  Yep, even Derek Jeter and Hanley Ramirez, both noted defensive bumblers, rate better.  If you feel like Yuni’s diving and missing a lot more balls this year, feel good knowing that the numbers back you up.  But feel bad that Yuni’s not playing even average defense.

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