Gio Gonzalez: The Orioles Will Swing at Anything

[OFFNY]

21 minutes ago, Frobby said:

 

I guess I'm a little less sensitive than some of you guys. What exactly did Gonzalez say that was so awful? When you throw a pitch that's literally a full foot above the strike zone and it gets tomahawked for a homer, isn't the natural reaction, "Where do I need to throw it so that they won't hit it --- the backstop?"    I didn't find his comment offensive in the slightest.

 

o

 

Comments (plural.)

He didn't just talk about the Trumbo's tomahawk home run. He also said that "The only thing that beat me was the long ball (the home run), and that if they had taken those pitches, they would have been strikes."

If he's just trying to be funny, then he really needs some work at it if he's considering a second career after he retires from baseball. 

 

o

[FlipTheBird]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I guess I'm a little less sensitive than some of you guys.    What exactly did Gonzalez say that was so awful?   When you throw a pitch that's literally a full foot above the strike zone and it gets tomahawked for a homer, isn't the natural reaction, "where do I need to throw it so that they won't hit it -- the backstop?"    I didn't find his comment offensive in the slightest.

Agreed, on all counts. Folks need to relax.

[Moshagge3]

I guess Bryce Harper's HR doesn't count either, right?

[schittenden]

Do the Orioles swing at balls more than some teams, including the Nats? Yes.  Do they swing at everything? No.  Turns out, this year, the Orioles aren't even wildly less selective than average.

The second column is swings at pitches out of the strike zone (regardless of result).  The third column is total pitches out of the strike zone.  The fourth column is the percentage of pitches out of the zone at which the team swung.  The Orioles are at 27.15%.  The Nats are at 24.2%, so the Os are definitely less selective... no big surprise.  The average across baseball is 26.44%, so the Orioles are really just slightly above average.  As a whole, the NL is slightly less selective than the AL (26.09% vs. 26.80%).  That's probably not significant over the sample size.  

Interestingly, when I looked at this, I didn't expect there to be much correlation between the selectivity percentage and the number of wins a team has recorded.  When I ran it though, it found a moderate negative correlation between selectivity and wins.  So, the more selective a team is, the fewer wins they have.  That doesn't mean much given that a highly selective team might have really bad pitching, which could throw the correlation off, but I thought it worth noting.  

MIN	490	2160	22.69%
CLE	560	2402	23.31%
NYY	622	2604	23.89%
WSH	595	2459	24.20%
TOR	604	2494	24.22%
LAD	615	2519	24.41%
PIT	600	2403	24.97%
OAK	605	2418	25.02%
BOS	575	2295	25.05%
DET	558	2223	25.10%
CIN	614	2379	25.81%
SEA	645	2483	25.98%
TB	706	2706	26.09%
STL	633	2425	26.10%
SF	633	2379	26.61%
MIL	659	2468	26.70%
NYM	610	2282	26.73%
LAA	667	2484	26.85%
PHI	664	2449	27.11%
BAL	602	2217	27.15%
ARI	675	2471	27.32%
MIA	613	2244	27.32%
CHC	712	2585	27.54%
COL	638	2289	27.87%
TEX	687	2427	28.31%
HOU	712	2488	28.62%
CWS	628	2182	28.78%
ATL	610	2060	29.61%
SD	715	2356	30.35%
KC	690	2264	30.48%

[Frobby]

12 minutes ago, OFFNY said:

o

 

Comments (plural.)

He didn't just talk about the Trumbo's tomahawk home run. He also said that "The only thing that beat me was the long ball (the home run), and that if they had taken those pitches, they would have been strikes."

If he's just trying to be funny, then he really needs some work at it if he's considering a second career after he retires from baseball. 

 

o

That comment doesn't bother me either.    It seems to me that it's a comment on his own pitching, not some implied criticism of the Orioles' hitters.   

[Emory Eagle]

1 hour ago, BohKnowsBmore said:

I'm not sure I agree with this 100%.  There seems to be a bit of orthodoxy that has developed suggesting that patient, long PA with more walks and less attacking is indisputably the best way to approach offense.  I'm not sure more patient PA are an ends unto themselves.  If the team's approach works, all the power to them.  Runs scored and wins is the ends I want them to achieve.

Obviously all things equal, I would like them to walk more (and 2B more, and SB more and HR more).  I'm just not sure I want the team to potentially sacrifice one of it's players' best attributes in search of that.

I can tell you as someone who has pitched myself that the more patient hitters wear you down and get better pitches to hit over the course of their longer at-bats.  But I don't disagree with your larger point, I wouldn't want to sacrifice run production for the sake of a potential increase in OBP.  I doubt that a more patient approach is a learnable skill for players already at the MLB level, so I think it's more about the type of players the O's sign and draft going forward rather than a transformation that needs to take place among the current personnel. 

[OFFNY]

40 minutes ago, Frobby said:

 

That comment doesn't bother me, either. It seems to me that it's a comment on his own pitching, not some implied criticism of the Orioles' hitters.  

 

o

 

Well if that's the case, then Gonzalez is a very gracious loser with an average at-best sense of humor.

 

o

[gmelson26]

Statcast guys say that Trumbomb is the highest ever hit in the pitch-tracking era.

[Frobby]

27 minutes ago, gmelson26 said:

Statcast guys say that Trumbomb is the highest ever hit in the pitch-tracking era.

Meaning, the height of the pitch when it was hit (4.62 feet off the ground).

[gmelson26]

8 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Meaning, the height of the pitch when it was hit (4.62 feet off the ground).

Correct, I really should have articulated that better.  Thanks!

[Frobby]

Too bad they didn't have Statcast back in the prime of Vlad's career.  

[schittenden]

8 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Meaning, the height of the pitch when it was hit (4.62 feet off the ground).

Which, for the record, is not over Trumbo's head, unless he's freakishly short for a baseball player.  In reality, it's likely 20" below the top of his head.

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, schittenden said:

Which, for the record, is not over Trumbo's head, unless he's freakishly short for a baseball player.  In reality, it's likely 20" below the top of his head.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v1368759883/statcast-of-the-day-trumbo-slams-4-62-ft-high-pitch

[Ruzious]

Talking to the old-timers (even compared to me), chest high used to be the wheelhouse for power hitters back in the day.  Of course, the strike zone umps used back then was higher than it is now.  Maybe Trumbo's simply a throw-back type of player.

[tntoriole]

GG is a girl.   "Big bad Trumbo hitting my pretty waste pitch over that nasty old fence....wah, wah, wah."