Brandon Belt Can't HIt the Breaking Ball

Bats, they are sick. I cannot hit curveball. Straightball I hit it very much. Curveball, bats are afraid.- Pedro Cerrano, Major League 1989 Brandon Belt has struggled to hit the curveball this season. If there was one thing I would point to and say that is why he is struggling that is it right there. According the the pitch type values from Fangraphs Belt has done well against fastballs but he has been destroyed on the off speed stuff. One curveballs he has been worth -0.53 runs below average per 100 pitches, on sliders he has been worth -0.64 runs below average per one hundred pitches and on change ups it is even worse where he has been worth -2.37 runs blow average. When we look at things on the pitch fx level we can see his struggles even better. Of the curves and sliders he has swung at he has whiffed on 35% of them. The funny thing is that he actually doesn't seem to be swinging at more pitches out of the strikezone on these breaking pitches than he does on oth...