Bobby Dalbec is a hitter. That’s what he’s always believed, anyway, steadfastly and without reservation. And any player who hit 8 home runs in his first 23 games and then, the next season, had a month like the one Bobby Dalbac had in August 2021 — another 7 home runs accompanying a ridiculous .339/.431/.774 slash line — would probably believe the same.
But it’s also hard to believe that Bobby Dalbec isn’t starting to face some doubt. Sandwiched around that hot start and that one hot month, has been nothing but pain. For the first four months of the 2021 season before that August, he was, by many statistical measures, one of the very worst hitters in baseball, near the bottom of the league in both on-base percentage and batting average, and dead last in the league in strikeout rate.