The spike in his walk rate is a positive indicator. I suppose it's possible in his effort to be more selective, he's not doing as good a job of finding his pitch to hammer. With just 4 XBH in 81 PAs, there's certainly something a little bit off. But the walk rate is good to see.

I haven't had a chance to see him play, though, so I'll defer to everyone who's actually watching him.

The early symptoms suggest Morgan Ensberg Syndrome.

I don't know anything about UT baseball or Russell, but if he isn't batting leadoff already, bat him leadoff. Take advantage of the high OBP.

It's possible that he's fouling off pitches he would have hit into play last year (i.e. because of injury he can't get around on them), and as a consequence he's seeing more pitches and thus, more balls which lead to walks.

I'd like to see a comparison of the number of pitches he fouls off per at-bat, or at least the number of pitches he sees per at-bat.  that might shed a little bit of light on what type of walks he's taking, which might then shed some light on what type of batter he's become this year.

I don't know if the kind of statistical analysis exists for college baseball as for pro (and I don't even understand most of the sabremetric stuff anyhow), but given that his walk rate is up so dramatically it sounds like his plate discipline has gotten much better.  Any way to track things like batting average on balls he's hitting in play or ground balls vs. fly balls and whether those sorts of things are different than previous seasons?  

Failing that...get some folks that have been at the games to comment on how he looks in person -- I listen to all of ASU's games on the radio, but I still couldn't have told you why Kiel Roling was so miserable at the plate before this past week cause I'm just not seeing what is actually taking place.  There's nothing like actually being there to see if he's swinging at bad pitches, hitting the ball hard right at people, driving the ball to the deepest part of the park for long outs, etc.  If his OBP is still high and he's still scoring alot, I'd assume things will even out by the end of the year.

...because I love me!

There are generally two reasons for a spike in walk rate.  Either he's become extremely passive at the plate, or he's being pitched around.

I admit I haven't seen a game yet, but a neighbor who's a die-hard fan said that Russell isn't seeing enough hittable strikes.  When he does see strikes, he's pressing.  So it's the inevitable catch-22 when you are being avoided.

My worry is the XBHs, or lack thereof.  You gotta think that could be an injury factor.  Also, remember that ML scouts have concerns about his swing.

I hope to take my son to a game or two coming up, but life's pretty frickin' busy these days.  I'd like to get a first-hand look because I feel like I'm pissing against the wind with this armchair analysis.

I've never subscribed to the idea that 'trying too hard' (or 'thinking too much') is a reason for problems at the plate. What matters mentally is concentration. The rest is in the batter's vision, strength, and the mechanics of the swing. In Russell's case, the problem is almost certainly physical

Taking into account that he was so good in previous years there is also the possibility that many of the teams are intentionally "pitching around" Kyle.  I know this is less common in college than the pros, but it certainly may happen.  The Texas offense is so good this year that pitchers may be taking chances with certain people and intentionally trying to prevent others from hitting.  From watching him bat many times, he loves to hit, and pitchers may be trying to draw on that to strike him out from out of the zone.  This would show why his strikeouts are similar but the walks go up in comparison, more balls pitched to him are out of the zone.