Santana breakout season?

[Prosecutor]

I was just looking over some splits for last year and came across these numbers. Santana's OPS by month.

April .722
May .787
June .785
July .818
Aug .828
Sep .888

You would think he might wear down as the season progressed considering he was catching a lot of games and playing first base on his "days off". But offensively he just kept getting better in his first full season of big league ball.

The question is whether he will start this season as the same hitter he was in July-September. I don't see why not. It's been reported that he spent the off-season working out in the DR and his weight dropped from 220 to 208. Also, with the addition of Kotchman, Santana may be a DH on his days off which will allow him to save some energy.

I think there's a chance we could see a really big year from this kid, especially if Choo makes a successful comeback. In that case Santana will get more at-bats with runners on base.

[daingean]

I was just looking over some splits for last year and came across these numbers. Santana's OPS by month.

April .722
May .787
June .785
July .818
Aug .828
Sep .888

You would think he might wear down as the season progressed considering he was catching a lot of games and playing first base on his "days off". But offensively he just kept getting better in his first full season of big league ball.

The question is whether he will start this season as the same hitter he was in July-September. I don't see why not. It's been reported that he spent the off-season working out in the DR and his weight dropped from 220 to 208. Also, with the addition of Kotchman, Santana may be a DH on his days off which will allow him to save some energy.

I think there's a chance we could see a really big year from this kid, especially if Choo makes a successful comeback. In that case Santana will get more at-bats with runners on base.

I'm hoping that missing so much time in '10 affected his slow start in '11. I do expect a breakout season from Carlos!!!

[danh8]

He's ready to really burst onto the scene this year and have a huge season. He got big last year, and carried more weight than he's ever carried. This kid actually has decent speed when he's around 205-210 lbs. He can run very well, and steal bases. In all honesty, this kid could play the outfield with his athleticism, and strong arm ...not saying he should ..but he could. I can see him really having a much much higher average, and great run production this season..

[TonyIBI]

Yeah, I think now that he had a full season in the bigs and was able to have a normal offseason without rehabbing from the knee injury that he will come back strong this year. Could be his breakout year. I think he'll sit somewhere in the upper 800s for OPS by the end of the season, maybe even touch the low 900s.