FanPost

sophomore slump?

Which 2nd year player on A's roster will have a sophomore slump, given there are so many of them.

I remember in Swish and DJ's sophomore year, I heard some comment abou thow Swish is more likely to regress because he has holes in his swing, and how DJ is a more complete hitter, look how that turned out.

I think having so many young guns in the starting line up, some of them are bound to fall back a little. I think Bart and Buck are likely candidate, Barton had 1 month in the bigs last year, and Buck was in and out with injuries. I wouldn't be surprised now that they are starters, opposing pitchers will start game planning for them more. I don't worry about Suzuki or Hannahan as much because they are not the top-middle of the lineup hitters that pitchers will focus on. I hope Buck and Baton can make adjustment quickly. Cust is also less likely, the way he broke into the league last year, most pitchers probably already had him on their radar last season, and Cust has stayed productive the whole time.

On the other hand, instead of new players emerging on opposing pitcher's radar, we also have players who are written off like Crosby, if he has indeed improved his swing to be able to after outside sliders better, maybe he can catch some pitchers by surprise.