Diagnosis on Lind/Hill debacle!

[rib217]

What in the world happened to these two? I'm not sure I can think of another pair of guys on the same team to follow up monster years with such horrendous numbers.

Is a Post All-star break turn around likely/possible for either one of them or are we just looking at a few duds who had career years at the same time?

[freeling_prideful]

Hill has been seriously messed up. He's hitting only 9% line drives, which is an obscenely low number. That's not a luck problem, either, that's a skill problem. It looks like something's gone a little loopy with his swing, and I wouldn't rely on him for anything at this point.

As for Lind -- I don't know that it was reasonable to expect much power from him before the season started, since he had an aberrant home run rate last year. The strange thing is that this season he's striking out so much more - like 25%+. I wouldn't trust him much, either.

[Montana168]

As far as Lind goes, his breakout year last year was supported by his stats. His HR/FB ratio was a little high but a small regression (maybe a few HR) could have been expected. Lind still has 11 HR so far this year, so it would not be crazy for him to go on a tear in the 2nd half and can finish close to 30 HR and retain his value. FWIW, he is starting to heat up. He has a hit in 8 of his last 11 games, including a multi-hit game today. He also has 2 HR in the last 4 games, and is slugging .542 in July. His horrible BABIP of .247 and his high K% are what is driving his low OBP and AVG, but those numbers could bounce back in the 2nd half since he had a BABIP of .323 and .317 the past 2 years.

At this point as an Adam Lind owner, his value is very low and many people are not willing to trade anything of value for him. The best thing to do is if it is not a shallow bench league, to continue to stash him on the bench and hope he builds on his signs of life. If it is a shallow bench league, and there is something useful on the wire, then by all means u can drop him...but giving up on him at this point seems a bit pointless unless you really need the roster spot. All i know is, I own him in my 30 player dynasty league and I have been riding aubrey huff in lind's spot while lind rides the pine until he is safe to deploy.

EDIT: make that 3 homers in the last 5 games after a HR today with 3 hits, and hitting .321 so far in july.