Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story has not started his sophomore season in the fairytale fashion seen in his first campaign. Colorado is eight games into the season. While the Rockies’ offense has sputtered out of the gate somewhat, Story’s struggles have been much more noteworthy.
To start the season, Story is hitting a measly .143 with no home runs or RBIs, which is a significant dropoff from the .343 batting average and 13 RBIs he had through the first eight games of last season.
Often times players will hit a wall, or what many people call a “sophomore slump” following a promising rookie season. The historic rookie tour forced the hand of pitchers all around the league to better game plan to Story’s weaknesses.
“I think so,” Black said of the effect of his struggles from his inaugural to sophomore seasons. “Last year as a rookie he sort of came on the scene. … The league has made some adjustment I’m sure on how they are pitching him. He’s I think already aware of this, and he will make the adjustment.”
One of Story’s biggest weaknesses is his strikeout rate. Story’s tendency to chase pitches and get behind in counts early has led to a strikeout percentage of 46.4%. That said, pitch recognition and plate discipline are two aspects of Story’s mindset at the plate that are in need of a tune-up.
“There are times when players go into a little bit of funks,” Black said. “Trevor might be in one right now. It’s sort of magnified because it’s early in the year. We talked in the winter about some goals, … The walk rate and strikeout rate is something he is going to try to improve.”
There is no doubt Story has the raw skill to be an excellent hitter at the professional level. With that, if Story wants to develop into an elite offensive weapon he will need to lower the strikeouts (120 in 2016) and boost the walks (35 in 2016), to compliment his slugging mindset at the plate.
The boost in performance will come along for Story. He’s already proved he’s got what it takes to play every day at the professional level, now it’s about polishing and refining his game to develop him into the strongest player he could be.