St. Petersburg, Fla. — These are frustrating times for Tigers’ catcher Eric Haase, but probably not for the reasons you think.
He’s fighting through a very odd stretch, both at the plate and behind the plate.
Since coming off the injured list (stiff back) on Aug. 27, he’s 11 for 62 (.177) with just two home runs and 16 strikeouts. And yet, the average exit velocity on balls he puts in play is a 90.7 mph – top 25 percentile in baseball. His 47% hard-hit rate is also in the top 20 percentile.