Dodgers: Cody Bellinger Could Be 50 Home Run Threat, Says MLB Writer
While Los Angeles Dodgers’ outfielder Cody Bellinger was on track for 50-plus home runs for a good part of 2019, he tailed off and finished with a superb 47. Still, the pursuit of Shawn Green’s franchise record 49 will remain in 2020. And if a player can get to 49, he can certainly make a run at the magical number 50.
It’s hard to believe that no Dodgers player has ever hit 50, given some of the phenomenal names who have played for the organization. However, MLB.com’s Will Leitch says that Bellinger is the guy if it’s going to happen in the current group of Dodgers. Recently he writes about every team in baseball’s potential home run champion, with Bellinger being the Dodgers’ obvious choice.
https://twitter.com/DiamondHoggers/status/1216612000018681858?s=20
While it was just a short snippet, I really like what the national writer notes about Bellinger’s swing.
Dodgers: Cody Bellinger, OF: The swing feels like it was genetically engineered to hit 50.
Undeniably, Bellinger has the best left-handed stroke I have seen since Ken Griffey Jr., which is paying him a dubious compliment. Griffey Jr. finished his career with 630 career home runs, and was one of the most prolific natural power hitters of a generation.
[adace-ad id=”118525″]Just three seasons in, Bellinger has an astounding 111 home runs. You may recall a recent segment in which Shawn Green broke down Bellinger’s swing on SportsNet LA, telling us all how Bellinger generates those beautiful arching parabolas that land in the seats.
That said, ‘genetically engineered to hit 50’ has a lot simpler and nicer ring to it. And I agree with Leitch – while many following the Dodgers say Bellinger will never have a year like 2019 again – I think there is a good possibility he finds his way to a 50 home run season before his career is over.
Finally, that’s what is exciting about Bellinger. To have a player on the roster who could lead baseball in home runs is one thing to be excited about heading into 2020.
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I would think if Cody remains healthy, 50 will happen a couple times. I would hope Friedman makes a long term contract offer. Cody has had several awards show up in his trophy case early in his career. And that in itself is a decent prediction to look at for future performance. We need to see about locking him in.
I hope so. Last off-season Cody did a lot of training and adjustments on his swings, he came back in 2019 with that new “scoop up” swing that resulted in a lot of singles, that attributed to his hot start. But so far this off-season we haven’t seen Cody doing much training. Players improve during the off-season with additional training and practice. I’m just afraid Cody is taking a laid back approach this off-season after winning the MVP, he might not improve much going into 2020.
I hope he doesn’t suffer the kind of drop off in production this year, following his MVP year, like he did following his Rookie-of-the-Year campaign. His production the 2nd half of last year was not nearly what it was in the first half, so I hope that isn’t a foreshadowing of things to come in 2020.