"Waste of money." "What is he doing in the lineup?" "Automatic out." Those are just some of the things you would hear or read when Jason Hayward's name came up in 2016. It was a constant struggle all year for Heyward. He posted his worst year in 2016 with career lows in batting average (.230) & home runs (7). His timing was off & he couldn't seem to get over that hump. Majority of Heyward's hits were weak ground balls to the second baseman. He couldn't generate the ball into the air. Fans seemed to give up so early on a guy who signed an eight year contract worth $184 million. It's silly to judge a contract off of the first year. Don't be mistaken though, J-Hey was effective. His defense was the X-Factor. The 4 time gold glove winner has always been fun to watch in the field. The amount of class he displayed and the leadership he showed, the Cubs had his back till the end. He's the perfect guy you want to have in your clubhouse. Heyward knew he was struggling last year and built enough guts to go into Joe Maddon's office to tell him to demote him in the lineup. A guy who just batted under .300 the season before in St. Louis is telling Maddon to demote him? Yup, it takes guts. We all know about the World Series game seven rain delay speech. Heyward said he couldn't not do it. He believed in that team like that team believed in him. They went on to beat the Indians in a historic way. Then came the off season. Jason Heyward was going to live in Arizona all winter to develop a swing that could be effective and work to his advantage. Working in Arizona all off season, he created a new swing. That swing includes Heyward's hands to be lower, he holds his bat barrel more upright, he has a higher finish, and it all ends with a stronger follow through. A big thing for fans coming into Spring Training was to see Heyward's recent changes come to life. Cubs fans were quick to judge again seeing the results this spring. In a 29 at bat sequence, Heyward posted a .138/.242/.310 stat line with eight strikeouts. It seemed like a never ending battle with Jason and his struggles. Just remember to never judge a player off of Spring Training statistics. With the 2017 season three weeks underway, Heyward is back to his old self. He's smashing baseballs with authority. What if I told you Jason had the highest average exit velocity coming off of the bat on the Cubs? Well he does. In fact, it's 90.5 MPH. That tops Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber. Even his ground outs or fly outs are coming with authority. Heyward only hit seven home runs in all of 2016 with an average exit velocity of 99.7 MPH. In 2017, the three home runs he has hit in the early going have all been over 100 MPH off the bat. It's evident that the results are being shown from Heyward's hard work in the off season. He's off to his best start to a season since 2012 with the Atlanta Braves. In which he hit 27 home runs that season. It may be early but the results we are seeing in these first few weeks are great signs. The hard contact and power numbers for Heyward continue to rise and the pop off of his bat is becoming more powerful. If Heyward can continue to stay hot and become consistently lethal on offense; Watch out MLB.
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Kyle MalzhanFounder who is an aspiring journalist who covers the Chicago Cubs daily. Archives
April 2020
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