St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker is having an incredible season–and one MLB analyst believes he’s here to stay.
Paul Hembo Breaks Down Walker’s Success
Recently, Paul Hembo appeared on STL Sports Central with Randy Karraker.
Karraker posed a question to Hembo.
“Is what Jordan Walker is doing here, in April, and May, and the early part of June, sustainable?” he asked.
“It is sustainable,” Hembo replied. “And I’ll tell you why.”
“When you see early results from someone look this out of the ordinary, compared to the player that they have previously shown, I am a natural skeptic. And that is a principle that has served me well. But in Jordan Walker’s case, I view his improvements, his changes, as perhaps more sustainable than most. Not because his improvements are rooted in an increase in bat speed or anything terribly measurable, it’s the quality of his at-bats. …
Hembo is Loving What Walker is Doing at the Plate
“[They’re] just so much better year over year. That is in large part because he’s so much more confident in his posture at the plate. My big gripe with Jordan Walker, all these years, even when he was thriving as a minor leaguer, was that it’s a very inefficient path, as I like to say. You’ll recall that when he was a much younger player, he would swipe across the baseball in a way that reduced the amount of surface area, for lack of a better term, that he had in the hitting zone, to drive the baseball to all fields. …
“When you have the kind of bat speed that he has, and you can backspin the baseball the way that he does, that kind of inefficient path provides you no chance to handle secondaries or be able to adjust pitch-to-pitch. Nobody that big, nobody with a strike zone that large, even in an ABS world, could get away with having a path that inefficient. But the manner in which he’s fixed that bat path is the lower half of his body. The posture is so much better. The body lean is so much cleaner. If you find a hitter for me that has a poor relationship with the ground, that’s a good one, it’ll be the first hitter that I’ve ever seen that you would describe as a good one, that has a bad relationship with the ground.”
Many thought Walker was going to slow down after his immaculate start–that hasn’t been the case.
MLB Reacts to Jordan Walker’s Insane Season
Here’s what people are saying:
Tamar Sher: “‘It was sick.’ Jordan Walker’s reaction to the Cardinals‘ sweep of the Reds. The young slugger is batting .303 with 16 HR, 47 RBI, and a .922 OPS this season. #stlcards | @KMOV | @MatrixMidwest.”
St. Louis Cardinals: “He’s an RBI machine! Send Jordan Walker to the MLB All-Star Game at MLB.com/Vote.”
Derrick Goold: “With 10 stolen bases and 16 homers, Jordan Walker is on pace to be the #stlcards first 20-20 player since Tommy Pham in 2017, and only the second 20-20 player for the club in the 2000s.”
Ethan Hannaford: “As the league tries to expose the weaknesses of Jordan Walker, he just keeps readjusting. The past week and a half has been a perfect example:– 5/29-6/2: .100 AVG (2-20), 9 SO, .243 OPS. – 6/3-6/7: .625 AVG (10-16), 4 SO, 1.625 OPS #STLCards.”
MLB Analyst Believes in Cardinals Breakout Sensation