Chapman’s streaks, slumps are all part of the learning process in big leagues
Matt Chapman is a difficult fish for reporters catch, even in a season without coronavirus-mandated clubhouse restrictions. He’s often away from his locker room digs, sometimes making a flash appearance on his way to the batting cages or workout room.
Limited clubhouse access makes Chapman — and all players, really — even more tricky to track down. But, once Chapman gets in front of the Zoom camera, he spills a fountain of insights and observations.
We caught Chapman for a 20-minute session with reporters before the A’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday. Some of what he had to share had to do with what he’s learning from his hot and cold streaks.
Meanwhile, highlights from the A’s win Wednesday
included Mark Canha’s tworun home run, Robbie Grossman’s RBI ground-rule double and Jesús Luzardo’s 6 1/3 shutout innings.
Chapman’s double that set up Canha’s home run may be in there, but certainly not included: Wednesday’s win was the first game this season in which Chapman didn’t strike out.
“My main focus yesterday was to just control the strike zone a little bit better,” Chapman said Thursday on a call with reporters.
Strikeouts have been the A’s vice. Asked Thursday afternoon if he was at all concerned with the high strikeout rate, Chapman was pridefully oblivious.
“Do we have a lot?” he asked. The A’s lead the league with 251, he was told.
“Oh, I didn’t even know,” he said. “I guess that answers your question right there. It doesn’t matter to us. We’ve got the best record in the American League, that’s what matters.”
This exchange revealed a team characteristic that perhaps points to its success. Collective statistics aren’t so much a concern as long as each player identifies individual improvements. Chapman’s no-strikeout Wednesday is a case in point.
Just 25 games into the season, the third baseman dabbled in a few hot and cold streaks. His latest hot streak was a .407 stretch with a triple, four doubles and four home runs in six games against the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim.
“Sometimes when I get into a stretch like that, I feel like I can hit everything,” Chapman said.
The hot streak quickly froze into a cold one, in which he batted .108 with eight strikeouts in the next six games against the San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks.
A’s assistant hitting coach Eric Martins articulated the coaching staff is concerned about strikeout counts only when it’s clear individuals are chasing pitches out of the zone. Chapman, who leads the team with 34 strikeouts, tends to fall into that pattern.
Feeling like he could hit anything after that hot streak, he started to do too much and expanded the zone.
He’s starting to rein himself back in again, he said.
“That was my biggest focus, was to swing at the right pitches and then kind of go from there,” he said. “I like my swing. When I’m in a good position to hit it, I’m taking a good swing. I’m hitting some balls.”
Chapman’s next step will be to build off better pitch selection and get ready in his swing a little earlier so that he can give himself more time to make a move toward the baseball or lay off the pitch.
“Yesterday I hit that double on a 2-0 changeup,” he said. “So I have to be really disciplined. The earlier I can get set up and use my eyes to see the ball, the better.”
Too early to scoreboard watch?
The season is 25 games old, but five weeks of the regular season remain. With the A’s still sitting atop the American League West, Chapman is not shy about scoreboard watching.
Odd season or not, Chapman admits he’s always guilty of that. But he has to check in on the Houston Astros, who lost Alex Bregman to a hamstring strain for at least 10 days, and rookie of the year Yordan Alvarez for the season amid a seven-game win streak. They’re now just 21/2 games back of the A’s for first. And the Texas Rangers are six games back, not too far behind.
“That’s our competition. I like to see what’s going on or who’s hot. I like to keep my tabs,” Chapman said. “During the stretch right now, we’re in the hunt already. Last year when we were in this stretch I was always checking. I want teams to lose and us to win, but if you want to make it (to the postseason) you have to take care of your own business. If we want to win the division, it’s up to us.”
The A’s swept the Astros when the team was in a particularly vulnerable spot not two weeks ago. But, Chapman isn’t surprised to see them tailgating for the division lead again.
“I would like to say it’s a surprise, but it doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “That’s a good team. We know what they’re capable of. We never take them lightly, ever. They got some new faces around there. They had some young pitchers; they got a new manager. They had some stuff they had to deal with. It was probably just a matter of time that they got past those early bumps.”
Who else is he watching?
Chapman also takes time to check in on some of his favorite players, including Washington Nationals phenom Juan Soto and San Diego Padres breakout star Fernando Tatís Jr.
“I pretty much check the box score every day to see if Fernando Tatís hit another home run, or Juan Soto. Those are my guys,” he said.
“(Mike) Trout too, but he doesn’t count,” Chapman joked. “He’s just not fair.”
Chapman had no qualms about one of his favorite players, Tatís, breaking unwritten rules when he hit a grand slam on a 3-0 pitch with the Padres up by seven runs against the Rangers.
“When I was brought up playing the game of baseball, I learned a completely different game of baseball than what’s being played now,” the 27-year-old said. “There’s been rule changes, where you can’t take catchers out, or go out of your way to break a double play. Guys don’t throw at people or police the game as much as they used to. … Unwritten rules from 10 years ago don’t necessarily fly today.”
Chapman noted that most pitchers throwing 99 mph fastballs will throw only one fastball in a given at-bat. The fastball Tatís swung at in a 3-0 count — even though the take sign was on — could’ve been the only one he’d see.
“So, for me, I have no problem with him swinging at a 3-0 pitch,” Chapman said. “That was probably the best pitch he could get to hit. If you take that 3-0 pitch, you’re 3-1, then you get a 3-1 slider. And then you’re 3-2 and you probably get a 3-2 changeup and there’s no telling what could happen. I think once pitchers start throwing 3-1 fastballs, guys will start taking 3-0 fastballs.
“The game is changing, and you have to do damage when you can do it.”