Every once in a while, the truth comes out. Every once in a while, you hear the words to back up what your eyes have been telling you for quite some time.
They want you to think it’s all about the magic of new-age pitching.
The truth is much different.
The hitters have allowed themselves to be manipulated in the box by chasing the false Launch Angle gods. That is baseball’s single biggest problem, no matter what lies they tell you with pitchers suddenly being unhittable.
If their lies were true how in the world could you have one team scoring 20 runs, another scoring 16, another scoring 10 and another scoring 11 runs – all just on Friday night? Did all the unhittable, high spin rate, highly velocity pitchers suddenly become hittable? And how about that 9-7 game, how in the world did that happen?
Hitting used to be about making adjustments. In this day and age hitters act the same, looking to lift the ball and the pitchers have figured out just how dumb these hitters are by attacking their weaknesses, weaknesses they have brought about themselves.
Taking the same swing every single time will result in what we are seeing in Major League Baseball today with already seven no-hitters being thrown well before Memorial Day and teams hitting a combined .237.
Scouts and veteran baseball people, and most importantly, AMBS, have been warning us for years that this day would come, and our voices have been pushed to the back of the room by the ‘Innovators’’ in charge of today’s game.
“WE ARE IN THE THELMA & LOUISE ERA OF BASEBALL AND ROB MANFRED IS DRIVING THE ’66 T-BIRD WITH TONY CLARK IN THE PASSENGER SEAT.’’
f you make no adjustments at the plate and every swing is pretty much the same, this is the result you get. Lineups used to be made where hitters had different roles, now every role is pretty much the same. Swing as hard as you can and hope the pitcher makes a mistake in location.
Two managers let the cat out of the bag this week but you had to be listening carefully. Their comments told you everything you needed to know.
First from Chris Woodward, whose Texas Rangers have been no-hit twice already this season.
“I think where hitting is at, in the Launch Angle Era, there are a lot of holes in swings right now and pitchers are taking advantage,’’ Woodward said.
And this brilliant observation from Marlins manager Don Mattingly. Donnie Baseball knows the ultimate truth.
“Where does this get better?’’ Mattingly asked. “Strikeouts are at an all-time high. Things like that, it tells you that there are some issues within the game that need to be addressed. They’re going to take a while because this started 15, 16 years ago with the swing changes and the philosophy changes. With all the analytics of the three-run homer and all that stuff. So it’s been coming and it’s been building and now we are at a point where I think it’s getting so much more attention because it’s just a game that is sometimes unwatchable.
“Guys you talk to they don’t even like watching games because there is nothing that goes on in them.’’
Give that man a cigar.
2 comments:
I touch on a portion of the same stuff tomorrow as Kernan did. John from Albany often preaches fundamentals. Baseball players need to become fundamentalists again, if baseball is to be saved.
Who are you and what have you done to Tom?
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