Myles Bailey named Freshman All-American, analyzing when he ascended to elite levels

The expectations for freshman Myles Bailey were high for most FSU baseball fans, and he delivered for the entire season and more. However, just when it looked like he was hitting that proverbial freshman wall, he ascended to an elite level to become a Freshman All-American.

Bailey finished the season batting .327 with 19 home runs, 76 strikeouts, 32 walks (and 10 hit by pitch), and 56 RBI. He batted over .400 through the first 14 games but struck out 20 times and walked seven times against a soft non-conference schedule. His batting average and production dipped as expected as the competition became stiffer in conference play. He had some solid games mixed in, but his average ultimately dropped below .300, and the strikeouts mounted.

He struck out in 69 of the 166 at-bats (41.5 percent) and only walked 21 times in the first 44 games.

Bailey was nearly either getting a hit or striking out at one point. However, Bailey seemed to flip a switch against arguably the best pitching staff FSU faced all season, North Carolina.

Bailey entered the North Carolina series batting .302 and went 0-4 in the first game (45th game), dropping his average to .295. He had some solid at-bats in the game but had nothing to show for it(no strikeouts).

However, over the remaining 10 games, this was what his production looked like:

Myles Bailey hit .527 over the final 10 games and hit a home run every 5.1 at-bats, where he put the ball in play. He hit a home run in seven of those 10 games and walked more times than he struck out. Bailey only struck out in 19 percent of those at-bats. He had 42 percent of his home runs to come over the final 10 games agaisnt the best arms he saw all season.

His batting average rose from .295 to .327 and 11 of his 19 hits went for extra bases. It was the quality of at-bats that stood out the most. Bailey no longer swung at pitches way outside of the strike zone, even with two strikes. He made pitchers throw strikes and did damage or showed patience and took the walk so others behind him in the batting order could do damage(averaging over a run scored per game in this stretch).

Bailey will only get better and I expect his strikeouts to decrease drastically as long as he doesn't begin to press as pitchers may look to pitch around him. When he puts the ball in play, he does damage, as evidenced by his 1.104 OPS.

He became a professional hitter over the final few games against some excellent pitchers. Did I mention he was excellent defensively at first base all season? I can't wait to see what he does next year and this season just ended.