“Whoever hits the best is going to run out there and play every day, that's the name of the game,” Farmer said. “We've got to score runs this year. Our offense was down last year, especially at the end of the year and so I think this year we're focusing more on offense and aggressiveness. Whoever drives in the most runs is going to get to play.”
Farmer hopes to be viewed as more than just a guy who can hit left-handed pitching, but that’ll depend on the improvements he made this winter. During the last two seasons combined, he had an above-average .838 OPS (on-base plus slugging) in 87 at-bats against lefties and a .568 OPS in 160 at-bats vs. righties.
He underwent what he called a “really drastic” swing change this past offseason working with Pittsburgh Pirates hitting coach Rick Eckstein, who lives about 20 minutes away from him and is a coach he worked with when he was in high school.
Send an email
