For most of the 2013 season Ryan Flaherty has been the subject of jokes and ridicule by Orioles fans, myself included, for his performances at the plate. And early on it was warranted.
In 56 April at-bats Ryan produced a dismal slash line of .125/.210/.232. May’s was better, relatively speaking, but not by much. He finished the month (which included a stint at AAA Norfolk) at .182/.265/.273 in 44 at-bats.
This would explain why, on more than a few occasions, I heard Flaherty replaced with “Failherty” when he was mentioned.
Flaherty headed into June with 15 hits, two home runs, seven RBI, and 28 strikeouts.
A turn of the calendar signaled a flip of the light switch of sorts for the Orioles’ second baseman, who has done his best to erase any connection between himself and the word fail. The 26-year-old is wrapping up a month that didn’t cause you to squint in an effort make him resemble a big league player. While all indications point to Brian Roberts being activated from the disabled list prior to Sunday’s series finale versus the Yankees, Ryan is making a late push to ensure he isn’t a forgotten man.
Through Saturday, Flaherty is flaunting a .306/.342/.500 line in 72 June at-bats. Yes, you read that correctly.
Ryan’s four home runs in the month tie him with Adam Jones. He crushed this one during the Orioles’ 11-3 beatdown of the Yankees on June 29.
Then there was his two-homer game up in Toronto on June 23.
Flaherty has ten RBI this month. That’s one less than Manny Machado and one more than Nick Markakis. His 22 hits are more than Matt Wieters has.
How has Ryan been able to do it?
Well, cutting his strikeout percentage to 18.4% from 25.4% in April and 24.5% in May is certainly a good start.
Ryan is also hitting less of the fly balls that caused many to say he was constantly swinging for the fences. So far in June his fly ball rate is 24.6%. During the season’s first month it was 40%, followed by 37.5% in May. Flaherty has handled breaking pitches much better of late as well. By month his average has increased versus them from .182 in April (63 pitches), to .200 in May (45 pitches), to .421 (65 pitches) in June.
That trip down to AAA must’ve helped.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens with Ryan Flaherty going forward but, at least for this month, he has rewarded Buck Showalter for sticking with him.
Stats via Baseball Reference, pitch and swing data courtesy of Brooks Baseball and Fan Graphs
