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Excellent article. Your line about opposing defenses being able to draw a chalk line at Revere's max hitting range is spot on. Being able to move that line is a subtle advantage for the Twins. I saw his drive to the deep OF last night as well and was pleasantly surprised. His fly ball might have been wind-aided a bit but it was still tagged well.
I remember going to a game late in 2010 and Revere ended up grounding out weakly to the pitcher four times in a row. I ended up naming that sort of an at-bat "Revering it." He is improving which is encouraging.
Where can one find data on Revere's (or any player) ground out/air out ratios? Has Revere's fly ball ratio increased?
Great stuff. I remain firmly in the "not a believer" camp at this point, in terms of him ever being a hitter. Hope I'm wrong.
Fangraphs has ground ball and fly ball rates (as well as infield hits and line drives, etc), but I don't know if they have them separated out by outs vs hits. They might if you poke a little.Quote:
Originally Posted by powrwrap
Nice article. I admit to being shocked at the numbers of extra base hits he's had since he's been up lately. Seeing the ball go to the warning track made me double-check to make sure it was him batting. Very nice to see. Go Benny Ben!
I believe in his ability as a defensive player (despite the pop-gun arm), but remain a little skeptical of his ceiling on offense if he can't learn to draw a few more walks. I hope the recent trend of driving the ball deeper in the OF will result in an increase in his line drive %, which should help his BABIP.
He has to draw walks, learn to crowd the plate, bunt, and be slap happy (shades of Luis Castillo) so when he does swing and hit the occasional fly, it scares the bejesus out of folks. Which also means he has to be the leadoff hitter...he is not a runner advancer. He can have a place in a lineup and on the field, just have to have the right place. Is he taking enough pitches to, say, flip-flop with Span?
No softball field I've ever played at would've held this ballQuote:
Had Revere been on a slow-pitch softball team, none of his hits would have left the yard.
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=18043337
Hey Parker, inaccurate statements are not good for credibility.
Good stuff :)
One can make a similar argument for Denard Span as well. Here is his chart for 2012 from the same place:
http://pitchfx.texasleaguers.com/cha...pray-chart.png
Maybe not 150 ft, but 100 for sure other than a couple balls he pulled. And Revere does not pull the ball. On the other hand, if you look at Revere's 2012 Chart:
http://pitchfx.texasleaguers.com/cha...pray-chart.png
You'll see that he is getting some more pop than he had in 2011.... Arguably similar to Span (other than pulling the ball...) Look at those balls at CF. And this does not have his long outs from last night
I'm not an expert in the mechanics of hitting (and I don't predict Revere will ever hit even 20 home runs), but remember that the only reason Kirby developed any power is that he completely changed his swing by incorporating a leg-lift.
Revere played in the Metrodome in 2011. Where was I? Must not be a big fan.
He can't draw many walks, when the opposing pitcher knows he can't hurt him with balls in the strike zone thrown with any kind of stuff. "A walk's as good as a hit" has a reverse meaning if he never hits anything that can move a runner more than a single base. The improvement in Ben's distance hitting is absolutely crucial to turning everything around, because an empty .300 really doesn't do much for a team.
A reasonable place for a player of his profile is to bat 9th until he is ever the team's best candidate to lead off. After all, past the first inning, you can think of any of his plate appearances as being like a leadoff batter's; and he's not exactly going to clog the basepaths in front of your true leadoff guy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rosterman
Revere needs to play CF where he can track down more balls than Span; Span needs to play RF where he has excelled in the past; his arm is also more suited to RF than Revere's. Both are lead-off type hitters, however, and it would behoove the Twins to trade one - (more likely Span having more value) and get some quality veteran pitching help in return.
You must be playing in the beer leagues or the coed leagues. Move up to the big boys and you will see diamonds that would have held this ball.Quote:
Originally Posted by righty8383
Ummm, sorry but no. That ball went about 370. Even the "big boys" as you call it don't play at parks that big. And if softball parks WERE that big, Parker would not have made that point about Revere not having any HR's in slowpitch softball in the 1st place.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fire Dan Gladden
BEN REVERE can't bat second. Lead-off, or nothing. You can bury him at 9th...but he can't bat second.
Yes, and he can be respected in the 9-spot. I ignored it because of the RF thing, but it is atrocious that the Twins manager doesn't (expletive deleted--can't I just say it?) understand OBP and how it affects the game. If there EVER was a dude for the 2-spot in baseball it is Joe Mauer. Not even close.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rosterman
You've obviously never seen any super-league...
Solid article.....also seems like he's not hitting as many comebackers to the mound as last yr........does it list how many he did last yr cause it was sickening.