USATSI_9399275_168381442_lowres

On Bobbleheads, Kevin Pillar, and Fandom

Sunday was a special one on the Blue Jays calendar. Kevin Pillar had his own bobblehead day. It’s such a mundane item, and yet it means so much. Role players don’t get bobbleheads. Players with off of the field issues don’t get bobbleheads. Players being shuffled back and forth to the minor leagues don’t get bobbleheads. Only the best, most fan friendly players get bobbleheads. The ones who become an integral part of the team. The ones that make you proud to say you’re a fan of them. Kevin Pillar is one of those players now.

*****

Pillar seems to be the type of player who people love or hate, with no middle ground to be found in between the two extremes. That’s probably because of the nature of his skill set. His defense is incredible, as he’s arguably the best defensive centerfielder in all of baseball. But, offensively, he’s one of the worst, and his flaws are very…flawed. He gets on your nerves when you watch him at the plate. From our perspective, whether on the couch or in the stands, laying off the breaking balls that dive out of the strike zone should be easy. Yet, Pillar doesn’t do that. From our point of view, only swinging at good pitches is common sense. It comes harder to Pillar. He’s made it this far in his career because he has swung so much. You don’t walk yourself into promotions in the minor leagues, you hit your way into them. Being a 32nd round draft pick, that’s what he had to do.

Now, he’s cemented himself as a big league player, and changing that very strategy that got him where he is will be difficult, but he’s been doing it, slow as it may seem. In 2014, he was swinging at 43.5% of the pitches he saw outside of the zone (league average is 30%). In 2015, Pillar cut that down to 39.8%. Thus far in 2016, he’s done it again, this time to 36.4%. That’s still over six percentage points above league average, which leaves a lot to be desired, but six is a lot better than thirteen.

Pillar has also started to hit the ball harder, as August Fagerstorm pointed out at FanGraphs a couple of weeks ago. His exit velocity has jumped by 5 mph over last season, which has resulted in over 27 extra feet on his fly balls. However, Pillar was so low in both of those categories last season that it hasn’t yet translated into any significant power gains on the field, as he’s only increased his ISO by .002 points. Increased plate discipline and better contact usually lead to an increase in offense, so maybe it’s just a waiting game at this point. All of that would provide a rational reason to like Kevin Pillar…but sports fandom isn’t rational.

*****

As a child, my favourite player was Eric Hinske. I don’t remember why I chose him, but I imagine it had something to do with him winning the Rookie of the Year award in 2002. After him, it was Scott Schoeneweis, a less than inspiring middle reliever who I liked solely because I thought he had cool hair. I was nine at the time, so it was a pretty legitimate reason. After those two left the Blue Jays, I didn’t really have a favourite player. I liked the team as a whole, and I guess that was enough. But last year, I wrote an article on Kevin Pillar that picked up a lot of traction on the Internet; even making its way into the National Post. That was pretty cool, and suddenly I was attached to Kevin Pillar. That was all it took.  Fandom is weird like that.

Up to that point in the season, Pillar had already dazzled us with his stupidly good catches, and helped spark an eleven-game winning streak with a couple of home runs off of Max Scherzer. Surprisingly, those things weren’t what turned me into a Kevin Pillar fan. It was writing one article about a few changes that he’d made to his leg kick that did.

On the outside, sports fandom is one of the stranger human phenomenons. We cheer, devote our time, and emotionally invest ourselves in these adults playing a game. On a micro level, individual fandom of a specific player is even stranger. We get so tied up on every little thing these players do. And it’s amazing. When Pillar posted a picture on Instagram of him wearing a necklace with the hebrew word for life on it, I felt proud. When word got out that he was working with hitting guru Bobby Tewksbary during the off-season, I was elated.  When he said that he’d like to represent Israel in the World Baseball Classic in 2017, I was overjoyed. When he goes through one of his hitless streaks, I feel for him. When he won the Blue Jays award for Hustle and Heart, I nodded in agreement. That’s the the type of player that Pillar is; the one who devotes everything he has to the field, including playing through a broken hand to ensure the Blue Jays were as successful as they were. There’s a connection between fan and player, even if it’s just a one way street, that makes the sports experience so much more than just watching a game.

*****

It started with the article last year, but my Pillar fandom has grown into so much more. Every up and down; every web gem and whiff; I’ll be cheering for him. His only job is to continue to make the improvements he has made over the course of his career, and further his ability on the baseball field. Our only job is to keep cheering him on. Like I said, it’s a weird connection, but there’s a reason that Kevin Pillar has his own bobblehead, and nobody can take that away from him.

Lead Photo: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Related Articles

Leave a comment

Use your Baseball Prospectus username