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BEFORE

AFTER

Dusty Brown (more…)

The Bucs are 25-47; The O's are 20-52

Pittsburgh Pirates hitting coach Don Long was on the radio before the Pirates and Texas Rangers took the field last night.  Long was discussing the Pirates young players being ready to hit.  Being mentally prepared with the bat in the right position.  Not lifting the foot too early.  

Long mentioned he saw the players changing their approach based on the pitch count.  For example, Long mentioned, the players get in a 2-0 count and feel they have to drive the ball.  Thus, we wanted to keep an eye on it.

If you’re a regular at RumBunter, you know we get to DC quite a bit.  Last month, a good friend mentioned that Washington Post writer Thomas Boswell wrote this excellent article on the game-within-the game.  The article fits well into our context today. 

With less than two strikes, the average hitter is a superstar in every count. It doesn’t matter whether the scoreboard says 0-0, 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 0-1, 1-1, 2-1 or 3-1. In those counts, the average big leaguer is a .339 hitter, comparable to Stan Musial, and is a .549 slugger, comparable to Hank Aaron.

Last season, in those eight “hitter’s counts,” the MLB average, respectively, was .339, .340, .368, .395, .317, .332, .339 and .352. You barely need to distinguish between them. If the next pitch is hit into play, watch out. The results will evoke “The Man” and ‘The Hammer.”

Almost half of all plate appearances end with less than two strikes, which deems well for hitters.  Obviously, the other half get to strike two on the hitter….:

Once that happens, the whole sport changes. On the two-strike counts of 0-2, 1-2, 2-2 and 3-2, batters hit .156, .171, .189 and, finally, if they can reach a full count, .233. In every at-bat last season that reached a two-strike count, the MLB average was .186, with pathetic on-base and slugging averages of .259 and .283.

We watched the game closely and applied the theory to the Pirates batters last night:  [continue reading] (more…)