Doubles vs. homers: who says Manny has to choose?

[Moose Milligan]

Leading the league in doubles now. I think he has a 100+ XBH this season.

Honestly, I really don't care about any other moves the franchise makes until they do something to keep him long term. Nothing else really matters.

[backwardsk]

But can he hit triples like Trumbo?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DrungoHazewood]

Leading the league in doubles now. I think he has a 100+ XBH this season.

I hope so.

In 2013 Manny had 38 doubles by the end of June and everyone talked about how he was on pace to break Earl Webb's record. The truth is much more nuanced, as pace is almost never your rate when you're in a short term peak. After hitting doubles at a rate of 74 per full season in the first three months of '13 he hit 13 the rest of the season. His career rate is 37 doubles per 150 games, so my guess is that he hits about 46 doubles this year.

I'd be good with 46 doubles, four triples, and 50 homers.

[Larry18]

He'll stop getting pitches to hit. The easiest way to cool off a hitter is to stop throwing him anything that even looks like a strike. Every hitter not named Barry Bonds will eventually start to swing a bad pitches.

[Ruzious]

Maybe this is the wrong thread to speak of such things, but I've consistently said that Machado isn't in the Harper/Trout level. Well, I'm changing my tune. And it doesn't hurt that he's playing SS.

I'm not sure it's a given that Hardy returns at SS - if Manny says I want to stay at SS. It's likely - but not a given.

[Ruzious]

He'll stop getting pitches to hit. The easiest way to cool off a hitter is to stop throwing him anything that even looks like a strike. Every hitter not named Barry Bonds will eventually start to swing a bad pitches.

Thing is - the O's have a couple of prodigious power hitters hitting behind Manny - not people like Zimmerman.

[Frobby]

FWIW, the record for most extra base hits in a season belongs to Babe Ruth, with 119 in 1921. 100 extra base hits has been reached 15 times, but nobody has done it since 2001, when Bonds, Helton and Sosa all did it. Chris Davis had 96 in 2013, the Orioles' record.

[Larry18]

Thing is - the O's have a couple of prodigious power hitters hitting behind Manny - not people like Zimmerman.

It doesn't matter. Davis and Jones aren't lighting the world on fire and Trumbo vs Machado isn't a hard call.

[weams]

It doesn't matter. Davis and Jones aren't lighting the world on fire and Trumbo vs Machado isn't a hard call.

Really? Watch what they do if Machado is walked to get to them. All of them.

[Larry18]

Really? Watch what they do if Machado is walked to get to them. All of them.

What will happen to Manny is the important question. Will he get frustrated and expand his strike zone or takes his walks and leave it to to his teammates. This isn't about can the Orioles win without Manny getting good pitches but how you attack the best hitter in baseball. Which Manny is at this point.

[DrungoHazewood]

FWIW, the record for most extra base hits in a season belongs to Babe Ruth, with 119 in 1921.

Wonder what Manny would do in a lower-quality league in a ballpark that's 257 down the line, like Ruth? Also a league where the save leader (Ruth's teammate Carl Mays) had seven, all on days where he wasn't making his 38 starts.

[Ruzious]

Really? Watch what they do if Machado is walked to get to them. All of them.

Yeah, I don't think there is any team in baseball that's going to set a policy to pitch around Machado with Davis and Trumbo hitting behind him - at least not unless both are going through bad prolonged slumps.

[BohKnowsBmore]

Yeah, I don't think there is any team in baseball that's going to set a policy to pitch around Machado with Davis and Trumbo hitting behind him - at least not unless both are going through bad prolonged slumps.

Maybe later in games if there is someone on and two outs, and the opponent has a good LOOGY that can come in to face Davis.

[Filmstudy]

Wonder what Manny would do in a lower-quality league in a ballpark that's 257 down the line, like Ruth? Also a league where the save leader (Ruth's teammate Carl Mays) had seven, all on days where he wasn't making his 38 starts.

I had forgotten that was still the Polo Grounds. That explains the 16 triples, but he still had plenty the rest of his career as well.

I don't doubt Ruth benefitted from pre-dating the "LOOGY with a pulse" era, but the Polo grounds was not an extreme hitter's park for that era.

Does anyone know of a study done of Ruth's career which counts the number of matchup at bats he had as related to modern sluggers? I'd be interested to know simply the number of AB vs. LHP as a percentage of total, but even better would be the number of AB he faced a LH reliever or a LH reliever brought in to face him.

[DrungoHazewood]

I had forgotten that was still the Polo Grounds. That explains the 16 triples, but he still had plenty the rest of his career as well.

I don't doubt Ruth benefitted from pre-dating the "LOOGY with a pulse" era, but the Polo grounds was not an extreme hitter's park for that era.

The Polo Grounds wasn't an extreme hitter's park but was probably a good HR park.

Ruth predated relievers as decent pitchers. In the first half of his career relievers were almost exclusively old/broken starters and actual starters on their off days. In the mid-20s Firpo Marberry was basically the first good pitcher to be used as a weapon out of the pen, but the idea of a relief ace didn't really catch on until the 1940s. Probably 90%+ of the time the Babe was facing a tired starter or a TJ McFarland in the late innings of close games.

Does anyone know of a study done of Ruth's career which counts the number of matchup at bats he had as related to modern sluggers? I'd be interested to know simply the number of AB vs. LHP as a percentage of total, but even better would be the number of AB he faced a LH reliever or a LH reliever brought in to face him.

I'd assume essentially none. There were very few quality LH relievers during his career, and while the idea of platooning goes back to the 1800s it was still controversial even on offense. Hitters hated it, even after the 1914 Miracle Braves won the Series with it. 60 years later you still didn't have LOOGYs.

You could probably find cases where a good LH starter was brought into a game to face Ruth/Gehrig and the rest of the Yanks on his off day. But nothing like today.