Photo by Jennifer Nieves
In his Minor League career, Luis Guillorme has shown himself to be a tireless worker who is constantly looking to find ways to improve his game. This past offseason one area he addressed was trying to hit the ball with more authority.
As he would tell Abbey Mastracco of NJ.com, “I can drive the ball. Most people think of me as just a little slap hitter. Which is just the way people think of me. When you’re a little guy you’re just thinking about the other way — don’t lift the ball. Now that I’ve gotten a little stronger and a little older I know I can do it. It’s just a matter of implementing what I do in practice in the games.”
After starting the year with three doubles in his first two games, it seemed like Guillorme was starting to implement the things he was doing in practice in the games.
Then came an 18 game cold stretch where Guillorme did look like the slap hitter people believed him to be. Actually, things may have been worse than that. For some, Guillorme’s inability to hit in the hitter friendly Pacific Coast League raised doubts about his ability to hit at the Major League level. Albeit unfair, these whispers appear when a batter goes on an extended stretch where they hit .189/.328/.208.
Those whispers have all but disappeared as Guillorme is on an incredible nine game hitting streak.
During this hitting streak, you are seeing the type of hitter Guillorme talked about before the season started. He’s working the count to get favorable pitches to hit. When he gets his pitch, he is driving it somewhere. That is evident by his hitting .455/.500/.697 in this stretch with three doubles, a triple, and a home run.
To put in perspective how incredible this run is for Guillorme, he has already matched his career high in homers, and he is one off his career high in triples. The five extra base hits are roughly a quarter of the extra base hits he had last year in 128 games for Binghamton, and the 21 extra base hits he had last year was a career high.
What makes this stretch all the more incredible for Guillorme is he’s not selling out to try to drive the ball somewhere. Rather, he is hitting for more power while also using the whole field to get his base hits.
While the power display is impressive, one truly remarkable thing about Guillorme’s current nine game hitting streak is within that streak, he has had two base hits in each of his last six games. This is evident of who much more of a threat Guillorme is becoming at the plate.
Overall, Guillorme is hitting .300/.394/.433. If he is able to keep this pace up, he will set new career bests in OBP, SLG, and OPS. More than that, if he is able to keep this up, he will soon find himself playing in the majors.
