Just kiddin with ya. I thought last year's knock on Taveras was that he was a singles hitter who didn't walk, or, to put it the other way, that he needed to hit with more power and walk more. If you look here, you can see his stats so far.
The Link 7 walks seem like a big change, but there are only 2 doubles and 1 triple. If you look here, you can get his splits for last April.
The Link 7 walks last April, too, so no real change. 2 doubles, 2 triples, and 1 home run, so he hit with a bit more power. More singles in 2006, so he's hitting for higher average, but that was never the knock.
It's great that baseball's a game of history and numbers, but if you really want to figure out the difference between Wily T this April and last April, you could find his spray charts somewhere on the internet. I just can't remember where. Those would confirm for you whether he's hitting fewer infield singles than last April. I'd guess he is, too, but don't have any notion of what to do with that information. There may be numbers somewhere, too. I'd expect RBIs might give a clue as to whether he's hitting more to the gaps, particularly since he's batting 2d, but from what I can see he had a few more RBIs in April of last year.
All I'm saying is that it's probably a bit too early to judge Taveras a changed man, and that if he has matured as a hitter, it's great that he's an excellent defensive central gardner.
