Bobby Dalbec is his own toughest critic.
We haven’t seen much at the plate thus far this season from the Red Sox first baseman, who’s batting .185 on the campaign heading into Thursday night’s game against the Houston Astros. Most knew Dalbec was a likely candidate to rack up strikeouts, but there just hasn’t been enough pop from the 25-year-old to excuse the Ks.
Dalbec knows the kind of damage he’s capable of doing at the plate, which has made these ongoing struggles even tougher to deal with.
“The pressure I put on myself is because I know what I can do and I know I’m not doing close to what I’m capable of doing,” Dalbec told WEEI’s Rob Bradford on Wednesday. “That’s what bothers me. That’s what kind of makes me feel the pressure, just from myself. I can’t control what other people feel about me.
“I feel like everyone goes through it. I’m just going through it a little bit longer than I would like to. A lot of other guys clean it up quicker. I wouldn’t say I have a complex swing, but I just have a bigger gather and long levers so I really need to tighten things up and be more conscious of it. … I just need to be more on top of it.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora addressed Dalbec’s shortcomings earlier this week, explaining the 2016 fourth-rounder needs to incorporate a mindset of chasing good at-bats rather than chasing hits.
Boston doesn’t really even need consistent offensive output from Dalbec, either. Even modest production from the promising slugger would make the Red Sox lineup all the more formidable.
