Walker rides season ‘curler coaster’

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If he’s going to experience a curler coaster this 12 months, D-backs first baseman Christian Walker goes to go to an amusement park. When it involves his time on the ballpark, Walker is making an attempt to maintain issues on a fair keel.

“Honestly, last year was such a good learning experience for me,” Walker mentioned.

Walker opened the 12 months crushing balls on the plate, however having little to point out for it. His anticipated stats early within the season, that are based mostly on issues like exit velocity and launch angle, had been excellent. His precise numbers weren’t.

Walker’s numbers finally got here round final 12 months. He completed with 36 homers and a 126 OPS+ and likewise gained his first profession Gold Glove award.

This 12 months, his numbers are good — he had a 135 OPS+ heading into play Friday night time and had already hit 11 homers — and mentally he’s incorporating classes from final 12 months.

“Just like when the numbers weren’t there last year and I had to trust my process, it’s kind of a similar headspace this year to be honest,” Walker mentioned. “Like I know I feel competitive and I feel good and am helping the team right now. Outside of that, acknowledging the numbers doesn’t feel like … doesn’t really add much to it.”

Walker will encounter struggles sooner or later this 12 months, each participant does, and that information will hold him from hitting the panic button and altering every thing abruptly.

“Obviously I want to keep it going, but in the same sense, I understand how quickly things can change and how temporary things can be in baseball. Not like a negative Debbie Downer kind of sense, but I’m just trying to be real with the whole thing and I feel like as long as my process is good and I feel competitive, then everything else will kind of line up.”

Toward the again half of final 12 months, D-backs supervisor Torey Lovullo seen that Walker was doing a greater job of chopping down his swing when he wanted to hit a ball onerous up the center versus at all times trying to hit the ball out of the ballpark.

“I think he’s just a very good hitter that is understanding how he feels per pitch, per at-bat and he’s counterpunching what he’s getting from the pitcher,” Lovullo mentioned. “Just a mature approach, a very, very mature, professional approach right now.”

That will hold him off these amusement park rides.

“I think when people talk about the roller coaster of baseball, for me it’s reacting to either needing to be better or feeling like I’m playing maybe outside myself at the moment,” he mentioned.

“It’s like I both gotta maintain on to it actually tight otherwise you’re making an attempt to get again this elusive factor and it is like, each ends of that spectrum are exhausting. So for me, the battle is simply staying in the midst of the highway.”