O's .300 hitters

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Can_of_corn said:

It's amazing how overvalued singles were for over a century.

Sure…but going way overboard in one direction doesn’t mean you do the opposite now. There should be a happy median and we are far from it. 
 

 

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Sure…but going way overboard in one direction doesn’t mean you do the opposite now. There should be a happy median and we are far from it. 
 

 

/Shrug.  I think it's pretty close to optimal from an efficiency stand point now.  Given how effective pitching is.

I think the fans are having more trouble adapting to the changes.

[SteveA]

55 minutes ago, TomDominick said:

Hanser Alberto was the last Oriole to hit .300 or over....305 in 2019 in 524 at bats.

Hanser most recently played in the Dominican Winter League last January, and in the majors last year.   He probably can still swing a bat.

Pick him up to play 1B/DH vs lefties, ditch Eloy.   I don't think we'd being no hit into the 9th inning with him in the lineup.

Come on Elias, you should still have his agent in your contact list.

[Aristotelian]

1 hour ago, Oriole40 said:

Joke of the Day:   Time for the second DH.

As if more AB's for Jimenez would help

[bpilktree67]

In the beginning of the year the team had the best hitting team in baseball but were never walking and near the bottom.  There was lots of complaining about how they don’t walk enough to be a better lineup.  The second half of the year they are near the top of the league in walks and there hitting has fallen off.  You would think with more walks and taking pitches they would be hitting better.  Are they walking to much and not being aggressive like they were earlier in the year?   

[SteveA]

4 minutes ago, bpilktree67 said:

In the beginning of the year the team had the best hitting team in baseball but were never walking and near the bottom.  There was lots of complaining about how they don’t walk enough to be a better lineup.  The second half of the year they are near the top of the league in walks and there hitting has fallen off.  You would think with more walks and taking pitches they would be hitting better.  Are they walking to much and not being aggressive like they were earlier in the year?   

I've certainly seen a LOT of called strike threes taken on balls in the middle of the plate, which is perplexing.   Sure, you can be looking fastball and be frozen by a breaking ball, but with two strikes you just can't do it.   Once again this is just eye test, general impression, but it sure seems to happen to us too much lately.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, SteveA said:

I've certainly seen a LOT of called strike threes taken on balls in the middle of the plate, which is perplexing.   Sure, you can be looking fastball and be frozen by a breaking ball, but with two strikes you just can't do it.   Once again this is just eye test, general impression, but it sure seems to happen to us too much lately.

I think a lot of the problem is that the hitters trained on the ABS system are falling behind in the count because pitches that are outside the strike zone are being called strikes.

Having a count go 1-1 instead of 2-0 is huge for a hitter.

[bpilktree67]

41 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I think a lot of the problem is that the hitters trained on the ABS system are falling behind in the count because pitches that are outside the strike zone are being called strikes.

Having a count go 1-1 instead of 2-0 is huge for a hitter.

I wonder if since we are a younger team with guys that came up using and a lot of guys that walked in the minors at high rates that is affecting us more then older teams.  We also don’t have any younger Latin players that swing a lot more in general than guys out of the U.S.  I know Holliday has been bad but he has gotten a lot of pitches out of the zone early in the count called strikes and as you said changes the entire at bat.  Then you start expanding the zone as well. 

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

It’s really absurd how devalued BA has become. 

Is it?  I think there are modern stats like wOBA that weight very accurately what BA is worth.   BA was absurdly over-valued for most of baseball history.  

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, SteveA said:

I've certainly seen a LOT of called strike threes taken on balls in the middle of the plate, which is perplexing.   Sure, you can be looking fastball and be frozen by a breaking ball, but with two strikes you just can't do it.   Once again this is just eye test, general impression, but it sure seems to happen to us too much lately.

I can’t speak to recently, but on the year, the O’s have the 6th-fewest looking strikeouts in MLB.   They’ve struck out looking 270 times, and league average is 300.   (Interestingly, through yesterday there were exactly 9,000 looking strikeouts in MLB this year.)

[Frobby]

5 hours ago, TomDominick said:

With this latest team batting slump I got to wondering about O's who have hit at least .300 in relatively recent years with a minimum of 400 at bats. Last homegrown player was 2008. Last not homegrown was 2019. 

In 2008, the MLB average was .264.  Today it’s .244.   It’s very tough to hit .300 these days.  in 2008 there were 41 players with 400 PA who hit .300.  Right now the 41st player with 350 PA (lowered since there’s still 12ish games to play) is batting .273.   

Maybe some part of that is offenses deemphasizing BA.   The bigger part, IMO, is that pitching just keeps getting harder and harder to hit.   

 

Edited Monday at 23:58 by Frobby

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, Frobby said:

In 2008, the MLB average was .264.  Today it’s .244.   It’s very tough to hit .300 these days.  in 2008 there were 41 players with 400 PA who hit .300.  Right now the 41st player with 350 PA (lowered since there’s still 12ish games to play) is batting .273.   

Maybe some part of that is offenses deemphasizing BA.   The bigger part, IMO, is that pitching just keeps getting harder and harder to hit.   

 

The poster child for the old school approach has struck out 26 times in 632 plate appearances.  He's hitting .322, his OPS+ is 109.

[HardlyRocked]

5 hours ago, Spy Fox said:

On the "death of the .300 hitter" front: if the season ended today, 2024 would be the second straight year with only a single-digit number of qualified .300 hitters in MLB. 

Before that, the last time there were less than ten .300 hitters was 1968. 

Which is kind of crazy when you think about it.  It is just getting a hit every 3 out of 10 at bats.   In any other sport that is a FAIL.  Pitching is much better these days with the creation of the specialty reliever but still it seems ridiculous that no one can hit .300. 

[Can_of_corn]

16 minutes ago, HardlyRocked said:

Which is kind of crazy when you think about it.  It is just getting a hit every 3 out of 10 at bats.   In any other sport that is a FAIL.  Pitching is much better these days with the creation of the specialty reliever but still it seems ridiculous that no one can hit .300. 

It's nine against one.

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

The poster child for the old school approach has struck out 26 times in 632 plate appearances.  He's hitting .322, his OPS+ is 109.

I wonder what Cowser would be like as a hitter if he only struck out 26 times a year.