Passive-agressive batters.. An Auburn problem?

[AU64 10,122]

An interesting piece at this link: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/?xid=si_topstories ...describes the hitting problems of former college players and why some of them may be learning bad habits in college. As I read the article I could visualize most of AU's batters this year. Rarely swinging at a first pitch, taking too many pitches, taking third strikes, getting behind in the count, etc. Seemed like most of our batters were on the defensive at the plate.....as described by the writer. I know JP was heavily into statistics though I have no idea what philosophy Gabe was teaching....but there must have been something going on with batting averages dropping for some guys in their second season.

[Mikey 16,717]

My idea has always been that if you want to win a baseball game your players will, sooner or later, have to hit the ball. "Hitting is contagious" is an accurate baseball saying and Pawloski drove me up the wall by killing potential rallies with sacrifices, many of which didn't work anyway.

Yes, there is a time and place to play for one run, but it's not in the early innings wasting your best batter by forcing him to bunt.

So I agree, our batters weren't nearly aggressive enough at the plate. One reason for the poor batting averages was they were taking good strikes instead of swinging at them.

[80Tiger 899]

An interesting piece at this link: http://sportsillustr...d=si_topstories ...describes the hitting problems of former college players and why some of them may be learning bad habits in college. As I read the article I could visualize most of AU's batters this year. Rarely swinging at a first pitch, taking too many pitches, taking third strikes, getting behind in the count, etc. Seemed like most of our batters were on the defensive at the plate.....as described by the writer. I know JP was heavily into statistics though I have no idea what philosophy Gabe was teaching....but there must have been something going on with batting averages dropping for some guys in their second season.

Pitchers want to get ahead, so first pitch may be the best pitch to hit you see. (This is probably not as true at the professional level).

[AU64 10,122]

An interesting piece at this link: http://sportsillustr...d=si_topstories ...describes the hitting problems of former college players and why some of them may be learning bad habits in college. As I read the article I could visualize most of AU's batters this year. Rarely swinging at a first pitch, taking too many pitches, taking third strikes, getting behind in the count, etc. Seemed like most of our batters were on the defensive at the plate.....as described by the writer. I know JP was heavily into statistics though I have no idea what philosophy Gabe was teaching....but there must have been something going on with batting averages dropping for some guys in their second season.

Pitchers want to get ahead, so first pitch may be the best pitch to hit you see. (This is probably not as true at the professional level).

Apparently even in MLB, most pitchers try to get that first pitch strike. Read this quote from an analysis of the issue. " Statistical analyst Eno Sarris has been studying first-strike percentage for years. Now with FanGraphs, he says first-strike percentage is important enough to explain "almost half the variance in walk rate." "So half the battle is getting strike one," Sarris says, "and half the battle is having good control. Hitters are just not changing, as a whole, their approach when it comes to swinging at the first pitch. In fact, they're swinging less and less while first-strike percentage from pitchers is going up." So pitchers are working to get that first pitch across the plate and more and more batters are taking the first pitch. College pitchers as a whole probably have control problems but not all of them. And small ball coaches like JP (and many others) want their hitters to work the pitchers for a walk. But with notoriously loose strike zones in college baseball, the batter can never be certain whether a close pitch will be called a ball or a strike. Thus, our guys are often behind in the count and too often when our guys get behind the pitcher they will never really see a good pitch to hit during their time at bat. Since the umps often call anything within a half foot of the plate a strike the pitchers start working low and outside. Our batters seem to habitually take a strike or two before getting serious....or they fail to get a bunt down in two attempts....and are left with one chance to find a pitch they can hit. This isn't just an AU problem but I do believe it is a major factor that determines which teams win and which ones don't.

[Mikey 16,717]

Here's one thing I kept telling my players for 20+ years: "Be ready for the first pitch to be the best pitch you'll see". It isn't always the best pitch to hit, but it is often enough that the batter must be ready to hit it.

Obviously, if the pitcher is having serious control problems that changes your approach, but under normal conditions the batter should be ready and have the green light to hit away on the first pitch. Taking strikes lowers batting averages and on-base percentages, there's no way around that.

[AU64 10,122]

Here's one thing I kept telling my players for 20+ years: "Be ready for the first pitch to be the best pitch you'll see". It isn't always the best pitch to hit, but it is often enough that the batter must be ready to hit it.

Obviously, if the pitcher is having serious control problems that changes your approach, but under normal conditions the batter should be ready and have the green light to hit away on the first pitch. Taking strikes lowers batting averages and on-base percentages, there's no way around that.

Read that 60%+ of first pitches in MLB are strikes and batters swing at less than a quarter of the first pitches. I love to watch Cliff Lee....his first pitch is a strike about 70% of the time. Pitcher has a big advantage if the batter is instructed to "take" the first pitch or two. I'm hoping our next coach has a more offensive approach to the game.....not just the long ball, but just generally more aggression at the plate.

[Ranger12 46]

Here's one thing I kept telling my players for 20+ years: "Be ready for the first pitch to be the best pitch you'll see". It isn't always the best pitch to hit, but it is often enough that the batter must be ready to hit it.

Obviously, if the pitcher is having serious control problems that changes your approach, but under normal conditions the batter should be ready and have the green light to hit away on the first pitch. Taking strikes lowers batting averages and on-base percentages, there's no way around that.

There is also a downside to that philosophy, as I have seen that side in my years of umpiring and coaching baseball. If you are going to swing at the first pitch, you better make dang sure you can get a hit. Otherwise you are helping the pitcher out by giving him one pitch outs.

I helped coach high school baseball this past year and our team was very young, as in 70% of the team was freshman and sophomores. So, after a month of practice before the season started, we knew we just did not have the plate discipline to be swinging at first pitches, so everybody got the "take" sign for the first pitch. After a couple of weeks of grumbling about that, our head coach decided to let our guys start swinging away at the first pitch. Well, our team BA and OBP suffered, as well as our record, for the few games our players had the green light. The reason was way too many pop-ups and easy grounders on first pitch swings. Needless to say, Coach's point was proven on why he had our players taking on the first pitch.

Now, that is high school baseball, not D-1 or MLB baseball. You would think that players at those levels would have the proper discipline at the plate to cause some damage on first pitch strikes.

[Mikey 16,717]

I don't know why a popup would be more likely when swinging on the first pitch than any other pitch. If the first pitch is a bad pitch, obviously take it but I've found that the first pitch is often the best pitch a batter will see.

As for "helping the pitcher", that doesn't matter much unless your plan of attack is to hope he gets worn out before the game is over.

Ranger12, if your high school team was indeed 70% freshmen and sophomores y'all were in a tough fix to begin with.

PS: One of my favorite things to tell a young player coming to bat was this: "Look here your (mama/girlfriend/wife~~ fill in as appropriate) didn't come here to see you try to beg a walk. They came here to see you get hits, so hit the ball!" They didn't always get a hit but that put them in the mental state to be thinking aggressively of hitting.

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

A lot of the problem I saw this year was our guys not swinging at fastball or change up right over the heart of the plate with either 0 or 1 strike against them, and get themselves into a whole in the count just like that