Gardy hinting at some changes

[Ultima Ratio]

No one wants a cheapie to break up a no-no.

It's a big moment... Don't tarnish it.

Well, I see several routine fly balls find the seats in right field at Yankees stadium. Those are cheap home runs IMO. But if that cheap home run breaks up a no hitter it's cool because it's a home run. If Casilla swings and dinks a nubber off the corner of the plate up the 3rd base line...and beats the throw because he's fast and hustling, I consider this a (or at least as) legitimate hit. Why reward the sluggers but not the speed/contact guys? They have different skills and approaches that make them successful at getting on base and scoring runs. In other words, a hit is a hit, or there are all kinds of cheap hits (bunts,nubbers, texas leaguers, fly balls where the OF worries about the fence and looses the ball and home runs) that tarnish the No hit effort, not just a bunt.

[jimbo92107]

It's good to see Ron Gardenhire man up and assume responsibility for this team's miserable performance. However, the recent history of his management style indicates to me that mouthing the words of accountability are not sufficient. It strains credulity to think that so many otherwise good baseball players cannot perform well at the plate for the Minnesota Twins. I keep thinking back to what David Ortiz said, that when he would hit a ball really hard, Tom Kelly would burst from the dugout shouting, "Hey, hey!" as if it was wrong to swing hard.

 

There is a fine line between plate discipline and timidity, and it looks to me like this Twins team has crossed that line. Instead of looking eager to smash anything in their hitting zone, these guys look worried about swinging at anything outside the strike zone. If you think of the pitcher/batter relationship as a game of cat and mouse, timidity is what instantly makes you the mouse, and we all know who wins that game.

 

Consider the Tampa Rays. Their guys have the right attitude. They look to jump all over anything in their hitting zone, which is different from the strike zone. Batting practice is supposed to be about learning to expand the area of pitches you can smash. You get your elbows up so you can smash a high ball, then adjust down for lower pitches. Was it a strike? Doesn't matter; the only question is, can you smash it?

 

Now obviously it's harder to smash everything a major league pitcher throws at you. They vary the speed from mid-90's to mid-70's, throw the ball with various spins, etc. Worst of all, they're so rude, they won't even tell you what they're about to throw.

 

Sort of. Great hitters know things that shift the advantage back in their direction. They can study statistical tendencies, and they can study video of a pitcher's delivery. They look for tip offs that reveal what's coming. A couple years ago Francisco Liriano was tipping his pitches so obviously that I wrote several rants about it. Standing on the mound, he would lower his right shoulder. Here comes a slider. Raised shoulder = fastball. Not too surprisingly, he was getting killed, because everybody (except the Twins pitching coach) was having a wonderful time reading his pitches. It's great when you know what's coming.

 

For pitchers that don't flash a neon sign like Liriano, batters are stuck with tendencies and pitch recognition. Again, some pitchers are easier to read than others. Some guys raise their elbow higher when they go into their fastball motion, or their knee. Clever pitchers learn to make their delivery look the same for all their pitches, differing only by the grip and wrist action right at the release point. Some of them change their facial expression for a particular pitch. It can get subtle. Or not.

 

Anyway, none of these savvy tricks work if you're timid at the plate. The mouse never beats the cat, and this Twins team will not win 60 games. A team attitude change doesn't happen until you change the source of the attitude. It ain't coming from the players.