Mark Maloney at the Lexington Herald-Leader offers up a good article about Jiovanni Mier's struggles this season.
Manager Rodney Linares, on dropping Mier from the #2 spot to #7:
"He was thinking way too much when he was hitting second. He didn't show that he was able to see a lot of pitches early, and he was getting behind in the count early. And he wasn't producing. We talked and, as a consensus, we agreed on dropping him down, and you see the results. He's driving the ball. He's getting his hits."
Since bottoming out on June 17 with a .199 average, Maloney notes, Mier is hitting .289 (22x76).
Linares:
"He's as good as advertised. I said it at the beginning of the year — he's a pretty special player. He's just going through growing pains. At 19 years old, playing 'A' ball for the first time, just finding out what his swing is. I didn't expect him to struggle as bad as he did in the beginning but, to his credit, he just works on it, and his defense hasn't slowed down."
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
