After three weeks of play, it's impossible to ignore the persistent struggles of Miguel Cabrera, With the end of April just over a week away, the Tigers' slugger has a .648 OPS that is even lower than the .729 mark he posted last September when he was dealing with a groin tear.
According to the PitchFX data on FanGraphs.com, Cabrera is seeing the highest percentage of pitches in the strike zone (51.4 percent) of his career, and he has not been taking advantage of it. Though he is swinging and missing at a rate in line with his recent norms, Cabrera has been taking strikes far more often than he does typically and even more often than the major league average.
The swing percentage data on BrooksBaseball.net shows that Cabrera was also not swinging much last September. Then again, there have been plenty of other times when Cabrera has been a more passive hitter (Aug. 2012, for example), and it hasn't always corresponded with subpar performance. It's not clear why Cabrera isn't swinging the bat or what impact that has on his current slump. However, given that this is the trend that is most out of line with what he usually does at the plate, Fantasy owners can take comfort in knowing that Cabrera has gone through stretches like this before, and he's always come out them as a more aggressive and more powerful hitter.