Alex Anthopoulos might have done it again. After acquiring Robbie Grossman from the Tigers in exchange for Kris Anglin, Grossman has been on a tear.
Granted, it’s not hard to upgrade on Marcell Ozuna’s recent production. However, Grossman has looked solid while filling in for a depleted outfield group. The switch hitter has posted a 1.000 OPS in 30 plate appearances, slugging two pivotal homers. That matches his home run total in 83 games with the Tigers, so where has this turnaround come from.
Gross, man
Part of the 32-year-old’s quick turnaround should be attributed to Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer and the rest of the coaching staff. Especially during last year’s World Series run, the coaches didn’t get enough credit. Obviously AA has done a spectacular job, but a team is so much more than one person.
Statistically, we can look at Grossman’s profile and see that he has gotten a little lucky with BABIP in Atlanta, but there’s more to it. Small sample sizes aside, Grossman has had a massive change in his batted ball profile. With the Braves, he has seen a considerable uptick in both exit velocity and hard hit percentage. Not only that, but his ground ball rate has plummeted from 32.8% all the way to 23.5%.
It’s pretty clear that Grossman has made some adjustments at the dish: he’s hitting the ball harder, pulling it more, and lifting it too. Whether this is just a hot streak or a legitimate change remains to be seen, but it looks like Alex Anthopoulos and the Braves might have snagged another diamond in the rough.
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