At the All-Star break, Brad Hawpe was enjoying his best season, batting .320/.396/.577 with 14 home runs and 59 RBI. Tenth in the league in batting, Hawpe earned his first trip to the All-Star game. However, while the Rockies have surged to a 40-27 record since the All-Star break, taking control in the NL Wild Card race, Hawpe’s once-promising season has fizzled out.
Hawpe is batting only .235/.372/.418 since the break. With a two-run homer against Adam Wainwright on Saturday, Hawpe has just six home runs and 20 RBI in the second half. Hawpe led the majors with 39 strikeouts in August, and has registered at least one strikeout in 41 of his last 46 games. Now, Mark Reynolds, Adam Dunn and Ryan Howard are enough to tell you that strikeouts don’t necessarily correlate to negative production, but until two home runs this week, Hawpe had zero home runs and zero RBI through the first 14 games of the month.
Manager Jim Tracy has stuck with his struggling slugger throughout the slump, but as wins have become more crucial, his treatment of Hawpe has begun to change. During Friday’s game against the Cardinals, Tracy pinch-hit for Hawpe with Jason Giambi -- another left-handed bat -- with one out in the ninth inning. Giambi delivered with a single and Yorvit Torrealba hit a sacrifice fly to secure the 2-1 win. But that doesn’t mean the decision was easy for Tracy.
“When you respect a player as much as I respect Brad Hawpe and as aware of his accomplishments as I am, not only in the time I’ve been in a Rockies uniform but when I’ve sat over there on the other side of the field, it’s not easy. But part of your job as the guy in charge is to make a difficult decision and know full-well it may not be appreciated or understood at the time.”
As for Hawpe, he is playing the good solider:
“No, I don’t want to talk about if it was hard. We won the ballgame. That’s the only thing I care about. Of course, I would like to perform well every time I get on the field, but the bottom line right now is winning ballgames.”
Hawpe was dropped to seventh in the lineup for Saturday’s game and responded with a double and a home run. The good news is that he is back to fifth in the order for Sunday’s game, so it appears Tracy is doing everything within his power to motivate the 30-year-old outfielder in time for the postseason. Just don’t be surprised to see him make a similar decision in October.
