David DeJesus, Unslumped?

Back before the season started, I had some cold feet about David DeJesus’ upcoming season. In light of his severe slump this year, I want to check in with my concerns and see how he’s doing there. Then we’ll check on some other parts of his season, and even see if he’s finally breaking loose from his nasty slump.

Two Baseball-Reference pages—DeJesus’ Stats | Splits

I pointed out a couple of things that made me a bit uneasy:

(1) The most obvious, his bad history with injury. In 2005, he played in 122 games. In 2006, he played in 119 games. In 2007, it’d be nice to see 140, 145, 150+ games from him.

How’s he doing in 2007? So far so good. In fact, very, very good. Of the Royals’ 64 games, DeJesus has played in 63 of them. His 63 games has him tied with two Orioles for the AL lead in games played—Nick Markakis and Miguel Tejada—who have played in every single Baltimore game this year. DeJesus is also tied with Grady Sizemore (at 290, eight more than Derek Jeter at number three) for the AL lead in plate appearances.

(2) His right/left hitting splits. Between ‘05 and ‘06, DeJesus improved against lefties pretty drastically, especially in the power department. But he regressed against righties, again especially with power. Now it’s never great to see regression from a hitter, it’s especially disheartening when a 26-year-old hits worse than he did the year before. Including his improvement against lefties, his overall average from ‘06 creeped up .002 from his ‘05 numbers, but even that’s a bit underwhelming when considering he was moving from his second to third year in the league, from his 25-year-old season to his 26-year-old season. Hitting against righties is crucial for any hitter, so it worried me that DeJesus was dropping production in that regard. That said, I’d be the first to admit the sample sizes from his ‘05 and ‘06 seasons are pretty small.

How’s he doing in 2007? Versus RHP: .262/.337/.361 | Versus LHP: .278/.363/.400. Needless to say, both sets of splits are down from his 2005 and 2006 seasons. But my concerns about DeJesus hitting righties have not been helped at all this year. Comparing his batting averages of Vs.RHP and Vs.LHP over the last three years: In 2005—+.030 Vs.RHP. In 2006—+.020 Vs.LHP. In 2007—+.015 Vs.LHP. As a lefty, you want to see DeJesus hitting the righties harder than he has been. Even adjusting for his slump this year, he’s not hitting righties well at all.

Interesting but unrelated split for DeJesus: After a 1-0 count, DeJesus is hitting .253/.368/.333. After a 0-1 count, he’s hitting .277/.343/.454.

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But there is some good news. Despite suffering his young career’s worst slump yet this year—a real oddity coming from a Mr. Steady-and-Dependable like DeJesus—he might be reaching the end, and turning toward the daylight. Again, thanks to B-Ref:

April/March: .308/.378/.486 (119 plate appearances)
May: .211/.297/.289 (128 PA)
June: .324/.405/.432 (43 PA so far)

Also:

Last 28 days: .231/.316/.317 (118 PA)
Last 14 days: .255/.340/.340 (54 PA)
Last 07 days: .357/.455/.464

[Sidenote: Anyone else kinda worried about the lack of pop in his bat, even with the major resurgence?]

Of course, he could just be having a great week, but even if it’s flukey, it’s great to see a guy struggling so hard break out, even for a bit. And, knowing DeJesus and what I believe to be his true talent level, I think this success isn’t going away soon.