When is a slump worse than a slump? When there are 60 games

Just as sure as someone could take advantage of this year’s pandemic-truncated, 60-game Major League Baseball schedule to hit .400, there are bound to be players who end up with much worse stats than they’d like.

After all, it's harder for a batter to make up for a bad week or a pitcher to mask a rough inning when there are only about two months to play instead of six.

And that could be troublesome in 2020, particularly for those who can become free agents next offseason.

“It definitely is going to go through people’s heads. It’s going to affect some guys. In a regular season, 162 games, you’re going to have hot streaks, you’re going to have extra-cold streaks, and in the end, it’s all going to balance out,” said catcher Kurt Suzuki, whose World Series champion Washington Nationals host the New York Yankees in an opener Thursday. “Now? ... You could go for a slump for, what, 20 games, and then you only have 40 to pull yourself together.”

Think of it this way: In a typical season, a full-time position player might get about 500 at-bats, so he would need 150 hits for a .300 average. Add a 0-for-15 stretch — that batter is now 150 for 515 — and the average drops to .291.

A loose comparison: Someone with 180 at-bats in 2020 would need 54 hits for a .300 average. Tack on a 0-for-15 patch — that batter becomes 54 for 195 — and a .300 hitter transforms into a .277 hitter.

“You’re going to see really good players that have really bad years. It’s going to happen, not only position player-wise, but pitcher-wise,” said Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, the 2018 NL MVP. “You don’t have that large sample size for everything to even out, so if you get off to a tough start or a bad start, you’re really behind the eight...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/When-is-a-slump-worse-than-a-slump-When-there-15420348.php