June 27, 2007
Hack Attack
River Ave. Blues wants to see Robinson Cano go back to hacking at everything, rather than trying to be patient. His argument is that Cano is just not a patient hitter, so why try to make him one?
I'll just point out that Robinson is a player who's value lies heavily in his batting average, and batting averages can vary quite a bit from year to year. So if you assume for a moment that Cano is a .300 hitter, years he hits .330 are going to be great, and years he hits .270 are going to be awful. Compare that to Rickey Henderson, for example. Since Rickey had a number of weapons in his arsenal, his low batting average years were often very good seasons, since he could make up for the lack of hits by drawing more walks. From 1989 to 1997, Rickey's batting averaged varied from a low of .241 to a high of .325, but he maintained a .400 OBA in each of those years (low .400, high .439). It didn't matter what Rickey hit. It matters greatly for Cano.
Posted by David Pinto at
09:07 AM
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During the Cubs/Rangers series last week the announcers were talking about Ron Washington and patience. Washington has said that they (in Oakland) originally tried to change hitters into being more patient hitters, but it made the hitters worse. Oakland management decided that they could not change players, so instead they started to pursue patient hitters through the draft, free agency, and trades.
I tend to agree. I don't think it is wise to try to change an aggressive hitter into a patient hitter if it is going to make them tentative at the plate.