Cody Bellinger
 

I was thinking about the career of Cody Bellinger...RoY, MVP, considered one of the top power hitters in the game a few years back, and then seemingly forgot how to hit.

Can you think of other players (current or historical) that had a similar arc?

He was never as good as Bellinger but Cory Snyder come to mind.

Zoilo Versalles might be one. He won the MVP at age 25 and was out of the league at 31, never again hitting over 249 or putting up an OPS+ over 100.

Daryl Strawberry looked like a lock HOFer early on.

Kris bryant to a lesser extent as well. Won ROY and MVP in back to back seasons. Been pretty mediocre ever since. Only 2 All Star selections in the next 6 seasons.

Good comparisons.. I recall reading about Bellinger tinkering with his swing, and how that might have been a big part of it. The decline happened at such a young age, too.

Bob Hamelin was ROY for the Royals and promptly fell off the radar.

Straw never forgot how to hit. Last full season for the Yankees had 24 HR in a year where he was diagnosed with cancer.

Drug issues, legal issues, and cancer. Amazing he hit as well as he did as long as he did. Guy was a generational talent. Obviously didn't fulfill his potential.

Never accomplished what Bellinger did but there will always be the cautionary tale of Chris Davis.

Oh man, the last few years of that contract were insane!

Hard for me to think of a similar trajectory as Bellinger, but guys like Chris Davis and Joey Gallo certainly come to mind.

Anybody else I can think of, like Nate Colbert, Joe Charboneau, Grady Sizemore, it's usually because of some sort of injury that the big drop-off occurs.

I guess at this point you can argue the injury bug is what led to Bellinger's quick decline also.

There's also the tale of the other two "Chris's"

Khris Davis and Chris Carter.

Nobody really thought too highly of either one, but both won HR titles and were effectively out of the league a year or two later.

Gallo is interesting to consider...do people think he's done? I'm not sure what happened to him, but I'm still hoping for a rebound after leaving NY.

Big guy, big hole in his swing. Guys like him take a big tumble as soon as they lose the slightest bit of reaction time. They don't know how to adjust.

I suspect he's playing on a bit of adrenaline right now, and National League pitchers will figure him out very soon.

Ron Kittle is another guy that got figured out pretty early in his career, though he did have a little bit of success later in his career as a platoon player.

He never came close to winning an MVP or any award really but how about the weird career of Bryan LaHair?

He'd played only 65 career games before 2012, when he was 29 years old. He somehow manages to make the NL All Star team in 2012 only to be released that November and never appeared in a major league game again.

Babe Ruth was destined to become a Hall of Fame pitcher in Boston, but got relegated to the outfield after being dealt away. His ERA in New York ballooned to 5.52. Sad.:mad::(:eek:

pete incavaglia (spelling wrong) or rob deer are the same as cory snyder and played at same time.

larry sheets had 31 homers in '87 i think

Just imagine what might have been!

Was his swing technically a little long, maybe, but a thing of beauty to watch.

How about the drop off in production from Altuve since the Astros scandal. Went from a .330BA and 200+ hits a year to a .278BA and about 160 hits a year. Just shows how much the cheating helped the Astros.

The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Nippon Professional Baseball league of Japan have released former big leaguer Bryan LaHair, reports Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com (via Twitter). LaHair was transferred to the Hawks from the Cubs after the 2012 season, agreeing to a two-year, $4.7MM deal that included an opt-out provision.

LaHair had a breakout 2012 season as a 29-year-old, posting huge first-half numbers that led to an unlikely All-Star appearance. But he faded in the back half of the year, ultimately ending up with a .259/.334/.450 line for the season, including 16 home runs, over 380 plate appearances. In Japan last year, LaHair matched that tally of homers over a similar 389 plate appearances, but saw his line dip to .230/.306/.428.

Hitting without a buzzer is much harder, I hear :D

Wow. An enigma in two different leagues.

Agree HOFer that sabotaged his own career with Drugs and other issues. Also a Great person.
Met him at a HOF induction ceremony and he was signing autographs and dale Murphy next table over (for money of course). WE were waiting online and we were at His table and because Dale was signing real slow we just waited. During the wait Darryl was talking to my sign and I, signed extra things (no extra charge) and did some pictures with my son and I. and He looked in Game shape.

Bellinger is the more extreme version of Yelich.

Yelich at least followed his MVP with maybe an even better season than he had when he won. His follow up season was huge.