Joey Rickard set the league on fire the first week. Fans chanted his name. Then the hits stopped falling during the past two weeks. What happened?
Joey Rickard had a Spring Training that only Jake Fox could relate to. He slashed .397/.472/.571/1.044 and displaced Hyun Soo Kim as the presumed Opening Day starter in left field. The first week was out of a dream. He was serenaded by the Baltimore faithful seemingly every at-bat, was pushed into a curtain call by J.J. Hardy, and JUST. KEPT. HITTING.
Until he didn't.
Something changed.
Most of us guessed that pitchers caught onto whatever Rickard's doing, and the pitch data from the first week of the season compared to the last two weeks bear that out pretty sharply.