when an answer to a riddle or the tying of loose ends leaves me with no sense of satisfaction.

He’s been like this since last year.

On Sunday’s game, Ralph Kiner essentially went to town and called Wright (and to a greater extent Bay) a big blubbering pussy and he was absolutely right. As a power hitter, you absolutely have to have the courage to get on top of the plate and take the outside corner away from the pitcher. If you don’t, any decent pitcher is just going to flip breaking balls on the outside corner all day long. You may hit those the other way for singles, but you’ll never turn those into HR’s.

For some reason, both Wright (documented to death thanks to Matt Cain) and Bay (curiously undocumented) have backed off the plate considerably since 2009. I would classify Wright as a balanced hitter moreso than a power hitter, but his K totals started skyrocketing once he backed off the plate. He’s also standing much further back in the box, FWIW.

Bay’s power has essentially disappeared since he backed off the plate in 2010, and this is a much bigger problem since he profiles like a classic ‘pull everything’ power hitter who never really had terrific contact skills anyway. Wright can at least slash .310/.390/.450 and be a productive player without hitting bombs… if Bay doesn’t maintain an ISO of at least .140, he might as well be selling popcorn.