ESPN's Jason Grey has been the Astros' Man at the WWL lately, and he chimes in on Brett Wallace. (Once again, it's an Insider-only, so we'll be really selective in what we pull).
Wallace:
It's kind of off and on. Some days, I go up there super-aggressive and I want to hit the first pitch if it's in the strike zone, and some days I want to see pitches," said Wallace. "I think the biggest thing is you have to understand you can't be one way or the other. You put yourself in holes that way. In the same sense, you have to be able to hit that first pitch, but you also have to be disciplined too, and say to yourself, 'I'm looking for this pitch early or this location early,' and if it's there, you need to hit it hard. If not, you work the count deeper. If the pitcher flips the 'get-me-over curveball' early in the count, you have to take advantage of it. You can't say 'Oh, I was going to work deeper in the count.'
"For me, that's been the adjustment: Learning when the good situations to attack and when the situations are you need to see more pitches and give your team a quality at-bat by working deeper."
Grey:
I'm still pretty high on Wallace over the long haul, and still see him as a guy who can hit .300 with 20 homers.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
