Break Out Your Violins: Juan Soto Spoke About His Struggles Adjusting To The Pitch Clock, "You Can't Even Play Mind Games Anymore"

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Juan Soto has picked up right where he left off last year with the Padres, and that's not a good thing for the Friar Faithful. The odds on favorite to win the NL MVP has posted a triple slash of .164/.346/.361 with 3 homers and 7 RBIs. He's gone hitless in five consecutive games. No bueno. 

I thought playing in an environment like the WBC would get him going on the right track to begin the season, but I was dead wrong. Soto talked about his struggles yesterday. Quick, someone go get a violin. 

I'm sure Padres fans are smiling ear to ear hearing the reason Juan Soto sucks right now is because he can't play mind games. Gotta love the San Diego star painting a picture as to why exactly baseball invented the pitch clock. Not exactly helping your case man. The game is better because it took all that bullshit out. The whole point was to remove all the time-wasting theatrics that slowed everything down. The Soto Shuffle was cool in the World Series a few years ago, but no one has time for that stuff in April. Instead of complaining, be a pro and make the adjustment like everyone else is. 

While it's only April 18th, this is now 70 regular season games of Padres Soto looking not himself. If you wanna include the playoffs too that's another 46 at bats posting a .727 OPS to add in. Something is off. 

Again, it's only been a few weeks, and this can all turnaround very soon, but you gotta wonder if this keeps up how he sniffs a deal like the $440M one he was presented at one point with Washington. 

Tremendous Boras analogy in there as always. 

I'm sure he'll eventually come around and get back on track, but this is not close to the version of Juan Soto we're accustomed to seeing. Defensively? Yeah well this is what you're getting with Soto, mind games or not. 

Does that factor into his next contract? How soon are you making this dude a full time DH? 

Some advice? Get back to doing this consistently and no one will care about the other stuff. 

The Padres as a whole find themselves 8-10 currently. They've one won one series so far, taking 3 of 4 in Atlanta. Other than that it's been a bunch of mediocre baseball from the Fathers. But you know who returns on Thursday? Fernando Tatis Jr. Selfishly speaking for Fernando, he couldn't be hopping back into the mix at a better time. The opportunity to ignite a sluggish group is right there for the taking. Seeing an everyday lineup featuring Fernando, Machado, Soto, and Xander is gonna be fun for fans and a full blown nightmare for any pitcher facing the top of their order. 

P.S. Fully expecting Soto to begin his resurgence tonight after writing this blog