I wouldn't compare him to Corley, but not recognizing early in the season..
Insulting to compare the two. Corley was one of the most lazy, self-entitled players we've ever had. Not saying Renfroe didn't frustrate fans at the plate, but at least he still contributed in RF when he was slumping.
That every pitcher is going to go after you with soft pitches away a majority of the time, and not make adjustments is very frustrating. How many times did he swing and miss at off speed away, when I'm watching on TV saying "off speed away, off speed away, here it comes" and he never made the adjustment. He the last half of the season he looked silly on a lot of pitches away or either hit weak "roll-over" ground balls to left side of the infield. His hit Monday night between SS and 3B was a pitch away. Ball was a few inches outside. He rolled over the ball and was fortunate enough to get a hit. Most of the times a player rolls over an outside pitch like that, it doesn't get through.
I wouldn't put the blame entirely on Hunter, although as a hitter of this level, you are supposed to be able to understand the game well enough to see how people are pitching you, assess the situation, and make the proper adjustments to counteract their approach. IE. 1)start expecting and looking for offspeed pitches away (early in count and when behind in count). If you are looking offspeed away, you can always react to an inside fastball by pulling hands in (if coached properly, which brings me to other reason for slump below). 2) Also start standing closer to plate after you realize they're pitching you away. This will move your plate coverage thus making the outside pitch now more like a pitch previously over the heart of the plate. There are a few other things but if he'd used one or two or both of these adjustments this year, we wouldn't have seen the slump we did. Which brings me to my 2nd point.
Where the 17 were the coaches during all of this? It's also a coaches responsibility to recognize these things and inform said player of the adjustments needed to counteract the opponents approach. Looking at most of our other hitters, nobody is coaching hitting so maybe they just let the players go and the only coaching is when to bunt, hit and run, steal, etc. No coaching of the actual act of hitting and approach at the plate. I never see a hitter move position in the batters box based on previous AB's that game. I also never see any of our hitters choking up on the bat and widening their stance when they have two strikes on them. Both of those adjustments have been shown to increase the hitters chance of making contact, which every hitter should always do when they have 2 strikes on them.
One of the prime examples of no coaching of hitting is our bunting approach. only 2 or 3 of our hitters actually bunt properly (hands out in front or plate, bat above the ball, and on a slight angle.) I hardly ever see that. Imagine how deadly we'd be if we had some mechanics and approach coaching of our hitters. You want an example of this type of coaching, watch a Vandy game. Those hitters have their hands in the proper position prior to swinging, their hands are at the correct points of contact on inside as well as outside pitches. These things are attainable through coaching and practice.
Yes we had a pretty good year on the offensive side of the ball, but this is despite only having a few players with close to optimal approaches and mechanics. Imagine how good we could be if someone would work with them on their mechanics.
I have a feeling 99% of you on this board will look at this post in a similar fashion as if I'd written it in hieroglyphics, but the people who know baseball will be able to comprehend the content.
