So everyone, both buyers and avoiders of Trevor Story, are wondering what the hell is wrong with 2016's #1 Wavier Wire add-on. While I won't claim inside knowledge or the such what I can tell you is that the numbers of Story are telling, interesting and slightly scary.

Let's start first with what we all talk and joke about on here. This kid strikes out like Adam Dunn in a White Sox jersey.

Story in 2016 posted the following numbers which I will discuss:

101/415, .272 BA, 130 K, 31.3% K, 35 BB, 8.4% BB, .567 SLG, .909 OPS

Story in 2017's numbers so far look like this:

20/128, .180 BA, 48 K, 37.5% K, 17 BB, 13.3% BB, .396 SLG, .685 OPS

Now what to make of all this? On the outside it simply looks like a guy who is only striking out more thus the issue, but that isn't really the case here. His walk rate has nearly doubled and he is on pace, with a healthy return, to obliterate his walks total from last season. So... what the hell gives here then? Obviously his BA is down, Slugging, OPS, everything across the board except his walk rate is dramatically bad. So let's delve deeper into the stats black hole.

Story is facing more 4-seam fastballs (41.9%) than in 2016 (38.4%) which in turn has led to him facing more change-ups (7.2% in 16' and 9.7% in 17'). He is also facing more sliders (20.7% in 16' and 21.3% in 17') which are looking very effective against Story. How effective? Let's look.

In case you don't know the stat runs above average with pitching (ex: wFB = Fastball) it basically measures how a batter handles a type of pitch. Well, get a load of the difference with Story.

2016: wFB: 9.2, wSL: 4.3, wCB: 2.5, wCH: 1.0

2017: wFB: 5.9, wSL: -5.6, wCB: -1.4, wCH: 0.5

Looking right here we can see a few major things with Story. He isn't getting fastballs like he did last season, sliders are his actual Kryptonite, curves are getting him now and he got worse with change-ups. What you are looking at here is simply put, a man who forgot how to see anything that moves. All pitches that have any curve to them or movement are tricking Story at an alarming rate.

Story has lost his effectiveness against fastballs which has in turn limited his overall production against fastballs by around 36% which, in baseball, in tremendous. Yuge even. Bigly. His effectiveness against sliders is down 43%, curveballs are down 64% and change-ups are down 50%. Those numbers are staggering overall. He's down across the board and by a wide, wide margin.

So what about his plate discipline? Well, it's a mixed bag that looks hard to read, but it's really not. Let me explain after we look at the numbers. Again a quick rundown of what I will be discussing. O-Swing is a percentage of pitches a batter swings at outside the box while Z-Swing is swings at pitches inside the box. O is outside, Z in inside. Zone is a percentage of pitches in the strike zone, F-Strike is the percentage of first-pitch strikes seen and SwStr is swinging strikes percentage. I just want to get all this for those that don't know it off-hand.

2016: O-Swing: 27.8%, Z-Swing: 66.8%, Swing: 46.2%, O-Contact: 56.2%, Z-Contact: 80.7%, Contact: 72.9%, Zone 47.1%, F-Strike: 56.6%, SwStr: 12.5%

2017: O-Swing: 25.3%, Z-Swing: 63.1%, Swing: 42.1%, O-Contact: 44.2%, Z-Contact: 73.4%, Contact: 63.6%, Zone 44.4%, F-Strike: 59.4%, SwStr: 15.3%

Do you remember the post about how Votto, despite his rough start, was actually having amazing plate vision and discipline? Story is doing exactly that except he is doing a reverse and swinging at everything he shouldn't while being MORE patient. How he did or does this is amazing from a fail perspective.

Let me break it down for you.

Essentially Trevor Story is being more patient at the plate. His walk rate is up and he's swinging less at everything, but in turn he is also making drastically less contact. Nearly 10% lower in zone contact and a full 12% lower in out of zone contact. His patience is NOT paying off like it does for Votto. Story isn't selecting the right pitches to swing at and he is straight up getting flustered with sliders, curves and change-ups. He is being overly selective about fastballs and in turn he is suffering for it. Story seems like he WANTS to make better plate decisions and is patiently waiting for pitches he feels comfortable with, but in doing so he is losing what his strength as a hitter is. He is starting off AB's with almost 3% more first pitch strikes which is setting him back faster. First pitch strikes are almost at 60% and he is swinging at strikes at an almost 3% higher rate now too.

Story is a power hitter that is straight up NOT taking chances at the plate. Last season he was a free-swinger and this season he is simply taking his time to his own detriment. This isn't just about Story however as pitchers are seeing that if they throw outside the zone and get him to swing it's almost a guaranteed out. Any pitcher with a slider is dishing it at him each plate appearance since he can't seem to get them at all. Any flamethrower is offering him up the corners of the plate knowing he won't take a chance. Is it all mental? I dunno, but looking at his percentages it seems clear that Story is trying to be a batter that he isn't. It's like asking Carmelo Anthony to be a distributor instead of a volume scorer. Trevor Story is far better when he is more liberal with his bat, but because he is trying to be more disciplined, thus more timid for him, it is taking a toll on his numbers and abilities.

When Story returns this is an easy way to see if he's back or done. If he starts freely swinging and taking chances then he is back and on track to return to form, but if he continues to be timid and wait for a perfect pitch he is going to be DFA'd before 2017 is over.