Morning Thread: David Freese

David Freese is an incredibly confounding hitter. After his recent slump and yesterday's power binge his numbers look a little more sustainable—perversely enough—but his BAbip is still over .340, and his isolated power only recently overtook 2010's number. 

We've never seen the home run power he showed off in the minor leagues, but what I'd like to know is just what that home run power looked like—if his Major League stint is any indication, he must have been Ryan Howard. Yesterday's home run was his seventh career opposite field shot in 15 home runs; he's pulled just three of those. The average NL hitter this year's got an OPS of 1.083 when he pulls it and .686 to the opposite field; Freese's career marks are 1.060 and 1.273. (For reference, Albert Pujols at his most opposite-fieldy, in 2011, was 1.367 and .962, with a 1.014 mark up the middle; Ryan Howard's a career 1.082/1.240/1.465.)

I realize that David Freese is probably not the best opposite-field hitter of all time, but he acts like he is; he operates, as a hitter, as though it's all he should be doing. I'm amazed at how much that seems to be his only offensive move—he's like Jose Bautista in reverse. 

I don't meant to rehash the Freese-in-2012 debate for this open thread, but I feel like we're finally getting a clearer picture of him as a player who's not ruled by his inability to walk, and it's still extremely confusing.