Chicago White Sox No.10-rated prospect and Winston-Salem Dash slugger Micker Adolfo swiped the Carolina League Player of the Month title for April. After dealing with injuries and enduring a swale in his performance the last few seasons, Adolfo has erupted in 2018 with eye-popping figures.
Congrats to Dash outfielder Micker Adolfo, who has been named the Carolina League Player of the Month for April!
MORE: https://t.co/CVgbFYYzfd pic.twitter.com/gebvq65iRU
— Winston-Salem Dash (@WSDashBaseball) May 3, 2018
Adolfo is the first Dash player to be named Player of the Month since Nick Basto in 2016 and ended April with a .308/.369/.549 slash line with 21 runs batted in and seven doubles. Only a few days into May and Adolfo has boosted those figures to a .319 batting average with nine doubles and five home runs.
As of Thursday, Adolfo leads the Carolina Leauge in homers and falls among league leaders in RBI, slugging percentage (.574) and batting average. This is Adolfo’s second league honor in 2018, having been named player-of-the-week for April 5-15 after setting the league ablaze with a .395 batting average, five doubles and two home runs while driving in 10.
The one blemish on Adolfo’s record is a low on-base percentage-to-batting average ratio. Typically, players keep a 100-point difference between their OBP and batting average. Adolfo is far short of that with only eight walks. In contrast, he has struck out 32 times and this statistic could be indicative of an aggressive approach.
Attacking early in counts and jumping on premium pitches is a solid approach, but this must be balanced with an understanding of how pitchers will adjust. If they believe Adolfo will chase changeups early in the count, there’s little doubt he will see a heaping portion of uncle charlies on the first pitch. But, if he tapers off the aggression and tries to work a few more counts it will force pitchers to question whether they can sneak a fastball bay the slugger and get ahead.
This is all part of developing into a big-league hitter and Adolfo has the physical skills to succeed. But we’ll see how his approach holds up over the season.