Maybe. It’s possible Matt Diaz was in better shape years ago with the Royals or something, but this story has all the hallmarks of a BSOHL story: struggling player with a weakening hold on a major league job + big weight loss and optimistic talk. Take it away Dave O’Brien of the AJC:
This follows a bulk-up with the Pirates which, if I remember correctly, was met with equally optimistic talk about how it would improve his game. It’s a lesser-known subgenre of BSOHL involving guys who go back and forth and claim improved feeling based on contradictory approaches to conditioning. I call it the “BSOHL carousel.”
After seeing his slugging percentage plummet more than 100 points in 2011 and home-run total drop to zero – he hit 20 in the previous two seasons combined — Diaz decided to change his physique. Not by getting bigger in his upper body, but by slimming down.
Through one week of spring-training batting practice, first against coaches and in the past two days against pitchers, the 33-year-old outfielder said he feels a difference. “Really good, free and easy on the swing,” Diaz said. “I had some power when I was hitting at the college I’ve been hitting at [during the offseason], but then when I came out here, hitting nice baseballs, I was like, ‘Wow, I do have power.’”
This follows a bulk-up with the Pirates which, if I remember correctly, was met with equally optimistic talk about how it would improve his game. It’s a lesser-known subgenre of BSOHL involving guys who go back and forth and claim improved feeling based on contradictory approaches to conditioning. I call it the “BSOHL carousel.”
