Two updates related to Anthony Rendon today from Kendall Rogers via Twitter (@KendallRogersPG), who spoke to Rice head coach Wayne Graham:
The good news from Rogers: Rendon isn’t experiencing any pain in his shoulder, and could return to third base this weekend.
The bad news: Rice lost outfielder Jeremy Rathjen for the year with an ACL injury. Â The loss hurts Rendon, since Rathjen hit behind him, and was his protection. Â Rathjen is hitting for a .295/.353/.426 line on the season, and hit for a .317/.396/.584 line in 2010, with 13 homers. Â This year he was the only Rice starter, aside from Rendon, with a slugging percentage higher than .377, and only one of three players with 25+ at-bats and a slugging percentage over .350.
Rendon was already having trouble at the plate, seeing a lot of outside pitches. Â The loss of Rathjen means teams can easily pitch around him, unless someone else steps up to protect him.
As a reference, in 2010 Rendon had an .801 slugging percentage, and had guys like Diego Seastrunk (.626 SLG) and Rathjen (.584 SLG) hitting behind him. Â Some of the lower numbers this year, including Rendon’s, could be due to the new bats. Â However, even with the new bats factored in, the 2011 Rice offense is looking a lot like a one man show with Rathjen gone. Â That means Rendon’s chances of improving his offensive numbers could be hurt, as pitchers would have less incentive to pitch to him with no one backing him up.
