Loose translation:  How’s it going?

Ardiente (hot, fervent), says guitar legend Carlos Santana who worked a nice hit with the song on his album Abraxas.

No esta tan ardiente (not so hot, not so fervent), says Indians catcher Carlos Santana who gurgles along at a tepid .221 on the year. Santana has not homered since May 15 and in that span he’s batting .168 with 10 rbi’s in 131 ABs. Not so hot, indeed.

Hitting instructor Bruce Fields has limited Santana’s movement at the plate to keep him back longer and in the last few games we’ve seen some improvement with Carlos driving the ball to left center. However, his count awareness and pitch recognition seem poor (especially for a catcher) and as he approaches 1,000 career ABs he’s hit only .237.

He should be better than this (.296 career at AAA/AA) but 1,000 ABs are 1,000 ABs.

Carlos, are we just wrong or just impatient?

4 Comments

  • Glenn says:

    I have never been a big Carlos fan. Even when I watched him play in Akron, where he was supposed to remind us of Victor Martinez, he didn’t impress me that much. And now that he’s had nearly 1,000 at-bats in the majors – and still not producing anywhere near what the Indians expected – I’m convinced we made a big mistake, especially signing him to that long-term contract. Right now I’d rather see Lou Marson as our regular catcher.

  • Mary Jo says:

    Santana’s contract (through 2016 plus one option year) has him making in the neighborhood of half a million this year and next, jumps to $3.5 million in 2014, and tops off in 2016 at $8.25 mil. It’s affordable. If he finally “gets it” he’s a real bargain. If we want to unload him he’s still a bargain – AND a steal if we could convince the market that he just needs a fresh start to hit his stride. It’s happened to us before – it will happen to us again.

    Sometimes just getting out of an environment is all it takes. Two words: Kevin Youkilis. Wonder if he would have hit his stride in C-Town now…

    • Glenn says:

      Good points, Mary Jo! You make me feel better about Santana’s contract if not about Santana himself. Thanks for the perspective.

  • Will McIlroy says:

    Power hitting catchers are rare so I would not sell low on Santana. He has natural distance if he would slow and smooth his swing rather than trying to jerk everything. We can stay in the race if he and Hafner hit.

    As for Youkilis, there were too many red flags. It looks good for the White Sox right now but we’ll see later. Plus we wouldn’t have the joy of seeing Kotchman bear down on .240.