Matt Adams is struggling. Wow, shocked (not). Adams has two homers through 12 games but he’s also struck out 10 times in 40 at-bats, is batting .225 and has a .679 OPS. Why people continue to think he will be a star is beyond me. Read his Player Profile if you need more convincing. 

Adrian Beltre will be fine. Early on he’s hitting .183 with a .596 OPS with two RBIs in 15 games, but we know that will improve. The real question is – by how much? Beltre is 36 years old, is approaching 2,500 career games, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if his production continues to slide based upon his previously established levels. Don’t forget he had only 19 homers and 77 RBIs last season. 

Mookie Betts is on pace to go 20/40 with 97 RBIs and 76 runs. That would be an excellent season without question. It’s also very early, and as much good as we see, there is also some bad with his efforts. Betts is on pace for 119 strikeouts and just 65 walks. That’s a BB/K ratio of 0.55. His minor league mark was more than double that at 1.27. Betts also is hitting a sickly .203 with a putrid .273 OBP. Again, long season, but to this point his effort has been very hard to define. 

Marlon Byrd got old overnight. Well he will be 38 in August so the calendar certainly suggests that he’s no spring chicken, but the past two seasons he had hit 49 homers and averaged 87 RBIs a year. He moved to the Reds this offseason but apparently he left all the hits in Philly. Through 52 at-bats Byrd has no homers, is batting .115, and he has struck out 17 times. Byrd hasn’t walked one time though he has been hit by a pitch so his OBP is slightly better at .130. My goodness, his OPS is .264 – an exact match for his 2014 batting average. He’ll come around a bit as long as he can stay in the lineup, but the odds of him repeating the numbers he posted last season are about one percent. 

Carlos Gonzalez is out of the lineup Thursday. Whenever healthy he’s produced. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and suggest you hold if you own him or you try to add him on the cheap if his current owner is ready to bail. Don’t know how much he will run this year, but the bat should come around.

Billy Hamilton is really fast and he’s been successful on all nine of his steal attempts in 13 games. He still cannot hit though (do you remember reading the phrase over and over again in his Player Profile?). Billy has hit .204 with a .283 OBP for the Reds early on. Through 178 big league games covering 693 plate appearances his slash line is pathetic (.250/.296/.355). Compare that to Nick Punto (.245/.323/.323). That’s how awful a hitter Hamilton has been to this point. 

TWO POSITIVES

Joe Mauer is hitting .291 after four hits in two games. How many folks realize that in two of the past three seasons he’s hit .319 and .324? I would suggest reading that again before you completely discount what Mauer can bring to the table. He hasn’t homered yet, and despite a strong .375 OBP the lame-ass Twins offense has only allowed him to score two runs in 15 games, so even Ray, his biggest backer, can see the downside as well.

Mark Teixeira is batting .204 through 14 games. Not good. But there is more to life than batting average. Through those 14 games the Yankees slugger has socked five homers and driven in 13 runners. He’s also hit four doubles leading to a .592 SLG. Toss in 11 walks and the result is an impressive .925 OPS. If he can stay healthy he’s going to end up being a nice bargain given his draft day cost and he could reach 25 homers for the first time since 2011.