May 22, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
Alejandro De Aza has struggled to start 2014. His struggles have made him a target for criticism.
De Aza remins confident he can rebound from his rough start citing a positive mental approach.He has has actually been incredibly unlucky, and CSNChicago Inisder Dan Hayes conveniently lays out the batted ball data supporting that claim:
"He is striking out more than he did last season, up from 21.8 percent strikeout rate to 24. But De Aza also has hit nearly as many line drives as he did a year ago when he finished with a .264/.323/.405 line and 17 homers. He’s hitting line drives in 23.8 percent of his at-bats, down slightly from 24.7 percent last saeson.The difference is he has found a lot of gloves in the way.Normally a .321 batter on balls in play for his career, De Aza has a .209 average on balls that aren’t hit for homers or wind up as strikeouts. He has never hit lower than .318 on balls in play in his career, which means he should rebound or he would go on to one of the unluckiest seasons had by a major leaguer over the past four seasons."
Ventura thinks De Aza has to fight his way through his bad luck:
"“Lately he’s been hitting it pretty hard, he’s been hitting into some tough luck,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “Tough luck happens to everybody and you have to be able to fight your way through it and he’s going to have to be able to do that.”"
Maybe this explains why the Whtie Sox have stuck by De Aza so far. But they may be exploring other options as one of the reasons for the demotion of Marcus Semien was so that he could learn to play the outfield.