Detroit — AJ Hinch is liking what he’s seeing out of Hao-Yu Lee lately. And not just for his performance Saturday, though that was pretty good.
And the biggest thing leaving an impression on Hinch is that he’s starting to see a growing confidence in Lee, a rookie who has appeared in fewer than 50 games to date.
“You tend to play with more freedom and play with a little bit more boldness,” Hinch said of growing confidence in a player.
Last weekend, Hinch spoke about things finally starting to slow down for Lee as he settles into major-league life. And with things not feeling like they’re moving 100 miles per hour around him, Lee’s play on the field has begun to perk up, too. He’s raised his batting average notably over the last month and has started to look more at home playing on the infield. And as things continue, Hinch is hopeful Lee is just starting to scratch the surface on the good baseball player that the Tigers believe lies beneath.
While Hinch and Co. have all the belief in Lee, it’s one thing to hear that people believe in you. It’s another to believe in yourself and breed confidence from doing, in this case playing infield and hitting MLB pitching. Hinch believes in Lee’s talents — as does visiting Astros second baseman Jose Altuve — but understands the young player needed successful reps at the plate and on the infield to really grow his own internal belief.
Right now, Lee seems like he’s turning a major corner with his offensive production and growing presence on defense, and Hinch is excited about what could come next for the player.
“It’s hard to replace confidence,” Hinch said. “And the only way you get it up here is not by people telling you you’re good or not by people convincing you that your best is good enough, it’s actually by being good and getting results.”
And Hinch is already starting to see those results from Lee.
Take Lee’s catch on the outfield grass, tracking back from second base Saturday against Houston. Spencer Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter also converged from their posts at first and in right field, respectively, but Lee took over the situation, made an aggressive play and secured the catch with his back to the infield.
“Like, he went after that ball to go catch it, he didn’t go after it carefully,” Hinch said. “He didn’t really care where Tork was or where Kerry was. He felt like it was his ball from the outset. Things like that, I think, come with confidence. Confidence comes from experience.”
At the plate, Lee is growing, too.
His pull-side home run on a lefty slider against Houston’s Steven Okert on Saturday is a positive sign he’s starting to grow at the plate, as much of his hitting was to the opposite field early on.
“He took his shot against a pitcher that I would have matched him up against,” Hinch said. “That’s what he should do well against. And so I think that the adjustments are subtle.”
The stats tell a similar story, as Lee has taken his batting average from .192 on May 29 to .261 entering a series finale against Houston on June 28. Of 14 appearances in June, he’s been held hitless just three times and had five multi-hit games.
And as Lee keeps finding his form at the plate, Hinch expects the challenges will only increase as major-league pitchers and scouting reports adjust to challenge Lee more and more and press on the areas where he’s less proficient hitting.
“The decisions are huge for him because when he’s threatened with velo is when he starts to get him a little bit wild with his swings,” Hinch said. “And they’re going to elevate on him because if you yank the ball down against him, you know, he hits the balls as hard as anybody on our team.”
However, much like he believed Lee would evolve into his present form, Hinch is very bullish on how Lee can continue evolving his game.
Offensively, the biggest evolution to come is in regards to the batter vs. pitcher chess matches. As the league adjusts and the scout catches up to Lee, he’s going to be challenged at the plate, and one big area Lee can help himself in that regard is commanding the zone and making good swing decisions.
Hinch believes Lee has the ability to cover the whole zone and hit a variety of pitches, but he’s not quite honed in on that yet.
“He’s a pretty good player in there that is learning now how the chess match works in the big leagues where scouting reports get more in-depth, MLB pitchers become more bullish with how they’re going to pitch you,” Hinch said. “The league starts to make an adjustment and generally when the league adjusts to you, swinging less is better.”
And on defense, though he’s been playing a fair bit of second base, in large part due to Gleyber Torres being injured, Hinch sees a future for Lee on the left side of the infield, primarily at third base.
“I still think he’s going to find himself on the left side of the infield a little bit more,” Hinch said. “But we’ve got to get healthy for that to happen, for him to shift to third base a little bit more, maybe even a few innings at shortstop.”
On deck: New York Yankees
Series: Three games at Yankee Stadium, New York
First pitch: Monday and Tuesday — 7:05 p.m.; Wednesday — 1:35 p.m.
TV/radio: All three games on Detroit Sports Net/97.1 FM
Probables: Monday — RHP Casey Mize (2-5, 2.95) vs. LHP Ryan Weathers (3-5, 3.95); Tuesday — LHP Tarik Skubal (3-4, 3.32) vs. RHP Cam Schlittler (8-4, 1.62); Wednesday — RHP Troy Melton (4-1, 2.39) vs. RHP Will Warren (7-3, 3.75)
*Yankees probables aren’t official.
Scouting report
Mize, Tigers: Mize hasn’t won a decision for Detroit since April 22, but has been one of Detroit’s more reliable starting arms when he’s healthy this year. He’s behind only Troy Melton for ERA and he trails only Keider Montero in pitching WAR for Detroit this year. He’s been much better against lefties than righties (.174 average vs. lefties as opposed to .290 against righties). The Yankees have just five true lefties on the roster.
Weathers, Yankees: It’s actually a second straight start against Detroit for Weathers, who faced Detroit in Comerica Park on June 24 and allowed one earned run on two hits and two walks over six innings in a win for the Yankees. He’s not infallible, with a 3.95 ERA, but Weathers is enjoying a career year so far and has posted, already, a career-high 95 strikeouts.
Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Confidence key in Hao-Yu Lee’s recent success, Tigers’ AJ Hinch says
Reporting by Andrew Graham, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Andrew Graham, Special to The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
