Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 28, 2008
Swing Away!

Joe Christensen links to a Jayson Stark piece on Delmon Young. Here's Gardenhire on Young's free swinging ways:

"I watched Torii Hunter for like 10 years," Gardenhire said. "You think Torii hasn't swung? You know what? There's nothing wrong with swinging. That's why they give you a bat. This kid's 22 years old. He's got everything ahead of him. So let it fly. Learn as you go. He'll learn the strike zone.

"To start telling a guy to just 'take, take, take,' sometimes that's just not human nature. You don't get to the big leagues, and you don't become a big league player, by 'take, take, take' and get walks. Some people are paid to drive in runs. You think David Ortiz goes up there to walk? He's paid to drive in runs. He walks because we walk him. On purpose. And that's what's going to happen to Delmon as he goes along, too. Right now, they know he's going to chase a little bit, but that's OK. I'll take my chances with him letting it fly."

There are people who get away with batting like this. Kirby Puckett, Joe Carter and Torii Hunter come to mind. I always wonder how successful these players would be if they didn't swing at pitches outside the strike zone. They'd have better hitters counts, they'd force pitchers to come over the plate more, and probably hit for a higher average and more power. They were good, but not as good as they could be.


Posted by David Pinto at 01:21 PM | Players | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Um, Vlad Guerrero?

Posted by: Linkmeister at April 28, 2008 02:50 PM

There are WAY more players whose careers were ruined by not taking a walk than were helped by it. You can't use the extreme outliers as guideposts for a players career. "Well, Sammy Sosa learned how to be more selective as his career progressed." Yeah, but there's a reason why he's the only player that people use with that kind of comparison - because he's one of the few that have done it.

Posted by: sabernar at April 28, 2008 03:00 PM

Right now Torii Hunter is hitting more than a hundred OPS points above his career number. When he starts coming back to earth, people will start talking about how he needs to be more disciplined at the plate. Bet on it.

Posted by: Casey Abell at April 28, 2008 03:41 PM

Dave - did you pay attention to the Gardenhire quote at all??? Your comments read as if you didn't. With your repeating of the "take more pitches" theme, you sound like Alan Alda in "Crimes and Misdemeanors" -- "if it bends, its funny..." But it is unrealistic to say that if you just take more pitches, you'll be better. Maybe some people can consistently put the barrel on low pitches, or inside.

Posted by: Phil at April 28, 2008 03:49 PM

Vlad Guerrero took walks (and still does!). Over his career, he averages per season 50% more walks then Hunter has.

Posted by: zeppelinkm at April 28, 2008 03:50 PM

Hitting is timing and rhythm and some guys are not going to be as successful taking more pitches especially guys with big swings and hitches - it's better to be more patient if you can still have the same reactions but some guys can't. A lot of guys aren't going to be able to adjust.

Posted by: Bandit at April 28, 2008 04:22 PM

I thought Oakland showed players that if they took walks they would be wanted in the majors. I guess that knowledge hasn't sunk into enough of baseball yet.

Common sense tells me a walk is better than a strike out, and a player is more likely to have the latter if he swings at pitches outside the strike zone. Also, with managers' concerns with pitch counts taking an extra pitch here and there can limit how many times you face a pitcher.

Posted by: Sean Hackbarth at April 28, 2008 04:54 PM
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