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Since the Cardinals have been at home for the majority of this month, those difficulties have been reflected in his overall performance in May. The bad has gotten worse for Freese - with a .180 average and .360 slugging percentage, he has seriously struggled to spark the Cardinals offense past the recently shaky pitching. His situational hitting this month has been appalling, as he has grounded into five double plays - including two today and an absolutely infuriating one in the May 11 game against the Braves, when, with the game tied, the bases loaded and one out in the 10th, Freese weakly grounded an 1-0 pitch that probably wasn't even a strike to short for a twin killing. It was awful and made me want to punch the TV. Again, Freese had doubled his walk total from the previous month despite playing six fewer games and he isn't striking out much either, so not everything has gone off a cliff for him. And looking at his pitch and spray charts on texasleaguers.com, Freese seems be having a tough time turning on inside pitches, resulting in his a large amount of fieldable grounders to the left side of the infield. It could be linked to lasting effects from his finger injury he suffered earlier this season or he has just lost a step. By comparing his pitch charts from April and May, one can see that he's been getting fewer inside pitches (his takes skew heavily to the outside of the plate) and he hasn't been converting the ones he has seen.
Because this year's lineup is so deep, Freese hasn't been pressured to be a cornerstone and do everything himself. Lance Berkman's return will also soften the blow. If he doesn't pick his production up soon, though, he could very well see himself be platooned. Mike Matheny has set the precedent of being very open to tinkering with the lineup and wouldn't be afraid to utilize every inch of his depth chart.
*stats not current to May 16 due to fangraphs.com and baseballreference.com not being updated
*stats not current to May 16 due to fangraphs.com and baseballreference.com not being updated
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