Baseball Talk: Hitting, Pitching, Catching Strategy

Pete Rose and Rod Carew.

 

I didn't mean to open that can of worms. You are all three absolutely right, of course -- many of the best hitters, and almost all of the older hitters, are front foot hitters. I think the best example was Babe Ruth.

:notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy

I have a video (no, Braves, I didn't see him live -- but is that you in the background on the front row?) In the video his left (back) foot is completely off the ground at contact and the ball flies out of the park. The incredible thing is to watch how fast his hands get the bat through the stike zone.

Anyway, what I should have described is the kid who shifts his weight early -- he uses his stride to transfer his weight, not to start his swing, and loses all power on any pitch except the fastball. I have no problem with the Lau philosophy -- he's certainly much more knowledgable than I am -- and those who think the weight should be on the front foot at contact. To me it doesn't really matter whether it's still going in that direction or has just gotten there, as long as it isn't already there waiting for the bat to catch up. It's just that it seems to me the "back foot" guys have more margin for error.

Braves -- I think it was one of your examples, George Brett, who said his theory of hitting was to "wait as long as I can and swing as hard as I can." Yeah, he got to the front foot, but he waited as long as he could to get there.

AJ is absolutely on the money, of course. No doubt the most important key is practice, practice, practice. Hard work, coupled with good hand-eye coordination, quick hands, and lots of confidence will give a kid a shot at being a good hitter.

 

Another question guys

Then, from the posts so far ......

Is a swing something that you "teach"
(Fundamentals, how its done, etc etc etc)

or something that you "tweak"?
(eliminate any glaring mistakes that will hurt down the line and practice, practice, practice)

I think we all agree that there isn't a cookie cutter approach to hitting. (but I personally am opposed to some "keys" that I think give youngsters the wrong idea).

 

Re: Another question guys

You do both and it's all according to the athlete.
If a kid has some fundamental flaws but is hitting rockets consistently.. ok let's let him try a few strokes with minor adjustments in the cage but don't mess with this kid too much.
Now, if he is hitting cross-handed and can't hit water if he fell out of a boat, Let's break it down to it's purest form, like water, and teach this kid how to hit.

 

Just goes to show what scouts know. You set school records in hitting and they make you a Pitcher

 

Yea, the Babe started as a pitcher, right?

 

I knew where you were coming from Dodger, I was just trying to shake you up a little But after that comment about me and the Babe, I might have to shake you up a lot!!!!!

I know you weren't old enough to play with Ruth, but I swear that was you dragging that big ol' lumber of Babe's back to the bat rack

 

Offensive statistics

Over the years I've developed some opinions about certain statistics. I'd like to know what you guys think. Which is most important at the high school level -- slugging percentage, batting average or on-base percentage? About 15 years ago Bill James developed a statistic called "runs produced" that combined lots of offensive categories. Is something like that a better measure?

 

Catcher POP times

This seems to be the newest statistic craze. I love statistics, but I must say that I am suspect of this one. My view is that any statistic that depends on the click of a stopwatch twice within 2 seconds is not going to be very accurate. As with some other statistics (i.e. the 40 yard dash), the more you like a kid, the better his POP time will be, because your thumb has as much to do with it as his throw.

Do you really need this to tell whether a guy can throw somebody out? I love watching Pudge gun guys out, too :hasta: but my fear is that this is becoming all that matters for catchers. I saw an article recently that said its getting around that pitchers don't like throwing to Pudge -- one of the reasons? He's so eager to throw guys out that he doesn't give the ump a look at the location.

I'd rather have a kid who blocks everything, frames well and is in control of the game, even if his POP time is 2.2 rather than 2.0. What do you think - particularly at the high school level?:aorangeha

 

I created a computer model 2 years ago and ran it through a seasons statistics for pitching, hitting & defense. I used the formulas from the SABR site and collected the data for hitting, errors, base running, out-on-base (other than CS), pitching and catching (PB's). I keyed in all players on both teams for every game played (12) and reached a statistical norm for calculates that sabr uses like (ERA - League Average ERA).

At the end, what it shows is Runs Produced above/below the statistical average in which the team competed for each player and will show a team Runs Produced differential above or below opponent.

After keying in 12 games "season", ran the stats and the Actual Run difference (team) was about 2% off what was predicted.

What I really found out was that the statistics are curiosities. Unless you have the books, with a group of score keepers who all score the same way and key in every player in the league, it's not accurate - it's just a statistical anomaly.

I have the pgrm around somewhere on my old computer. It was interesting - It used the classic Sabr formulas but the sad truth is that SABR only works for MLB - the formulas don't hold true for youth - college baseball.

At the HS level, The easiest one that I use is (Avg+Slg+OnB / 3)
it gives a composite average measure that is easy to get too without a lot of effort.

For Pitchers, I look at a simple calc: ERA * (RA/ERA) .. It factors in talent, plus the ability to pick up a team-mate who just made an error, but needs an entire season to be meaningful. Changes too rapidly. The on-the-fly calc in mid-season is H+BB/IP

In 9-10 yo baseball, a base-on-balls is not work .24 runs, a stolen base .37 and caught stealing -.48 .... A BB is worth .8 runs period - too many advance on WP & PB for any other stat to be worthwhile. All of the published formulas are for MLB - hard to extrapolate downwards and then creating the fudge factor to compensate for JV vs Var.

I had way too much time on my hands is the real reason......