• Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.

2021 Around MLB: Return of the Dead Ball Era

Do Not Sell My Personal Information
I am an old fan who wants the pitch clock.

It would need strict enforcement of the time
limit with a clear penalty for the late offender.
Add a ball call for a tardy pitcher and another
strike for a batter out of the box.

More action in less time. What's to argue?
 
Pretty shocked with the situation in St. Louis..

Either the dude is about to have some "legal" issues or he told them to eat it... If you guys hear any details, please post them.
 
Pretty shocked with the situation in St. Louis..

Either the dude is about to have some "legal" issues or he told them to eat it... If you guys hear any details, please post them.

It's probably more of the GM wants to do things this way, the manager wants things this way, so they parted ways... just too opposite of opinions even if he did get results...
 
I have no idea what the problem with Schildt was...maybe legitimate, maybe not. Schildt was nearly a lifer with the Cardinals...with a 55% win rate...and three for three in qualifying for the post season.

Unless it comes out that reason was for personal misbehavior that meant he had to be dismissed, the GM has put a noose around his own neck. He now has a very old team going for one last hurrah behind two beloved players.

He will now have to go with a manager from outside a stable org, or an in-house candidate with very little experience, following a successful manager. Its not a healthy situation to be in for the guy who wielded the ax.
 
Shildt needs to replace DeMarlo Hale on the bench and be the first to take over once Tito calls it a career.
 

The Best Teams in Baseball Are Keeping the Ball Off the Ground​


The Dodgers, Braves, Red Sox and Astros have at least one thing in common: They hit the ball in the air​


By Jarad Diamond


Oct. 18, 2021 10:00 am ET



Carlos Correa stepped up to the plate for his seventh-inning at-bat in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series last week with an unusual approach.


“I was not trying to get a single,” said Correa, the Houston Astros’ star shortstop. “I was swinging for the fences, but under control.”


He achieved his goal, blasting the ball deep into the left-field seats at Minute Maid Park to give the Astros a lead they would never relinquish. They currently sit three wins away from returning to the World Series for the third time in five seasons after splitting two games with the Boston Red Sox.

Correa admitting that he actively tried to launch a ball over the fence in such a crucial moment defies generations of conventional wisdom. For more than a century, batters aspired to hit hard grounders back up the middle, aiming for singles over power. Homers, they would say, just happened.

But these playoffs demonstrate the extent to which the thinking has changed. The last four teams still standing all specialize in avoiding routine ground balls, the worst kind of contact. In fact, they have proved that it is crucial to winning in today’s game.


The Astros ranked 24th in the majors by hitting 40.6% of their batted balls this season on the ground. Their ALCS opponent, the Red Sox, finished 27th at 40.4%.


Their National League counterparts, the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, fared even better in that department, coming in at 29th and 28th, respectively. The only lineup with a lower ground ball rate? The San Francisco Giants, who won the most games in baseball during the regular season before falling to the Dodgers by a run in the final game of the division series. Meanwhile, among the teams that ranked in the top 10 of MLB in this category, just one qualified for the playoffs.


In other words, teams that succeed in modern baseball tend to do at least one thing in common: hit the ball in the air.


“It goes to good game-planning and helping hitters understand what it takes to square the ball up to get it in the air,” Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers said. “That’s the reason guys started to get a nice arc to their swings.”


One of Hyers’s top students, designated hitter J.D. Martinez, brought that concept into the mainstream. The Astros, baseball’s worst team at the time, cut Martinez during spring training in 2014, believing he would never amount to anything as a big-leaguer. They predicted incorrectly.


im-418558


J.D. Martinez hit a grand slam in Game 2 of the ALCS.​

Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

The offseason prior to his release, Martinez worked with an independent hitting coach in California, Craig Wallenbrock, and his protégé, Robert Van Scoyoc. They helped him overhaul his swing from scratch in order to generate more lift, an idea the mainstream baseball industry considered radical. Martinez emerged as one of baseball’s premier sluggers with his new mechanics, ultimately signing a $110 million contract with Boston. In Game 2 of the ALCS, he hit a grand slam.



Van Scoyoc, one of Martinez’s teachers, now serves as the hitting coach for the Dodgers, despite fizzling out as a player after an unremarkable stint in junior college. Wallenbrock works as a consultant for the organization.


Given their brain power, it makes sense that the Dodgers thrive at keeping the ball off the ground. It helps that one of their best hitters, third baseman Justin Turner, underwent a similar transformation to Martinez. Dropped by the New York Mets after the 2013 season, he found a different independent hitting tutor who preached the gospel of the air-ball. That teacher, Doug Latta, worked alongside Wallenbrock for years.


“When you look at a lot of the most productive hitters, they’re going to be guys who drive the ball, who hit the ball hard on the line or hit it hard in the air,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said. “The majority of your damage is going to come on line drives and hard-hit balls in the air.”


The numbers leave no doubt. Batters compiled a .241 batting average and .266 slugging percentage on balls on the ground this season. On balls in the air—ranging from home runs to foul pop-outs—those figures jumped to .399 and .782, respectively. By getting the ball off the ground, hitters essentially morph into Ted Williams in his prime with the power of Babe Ruth.


im-418559


Justin Turner thrives at keeping the ball off the ground.​

Photo: Michael Owens/Getty Images

Though ground balls never led to many extra-base hits, they used to result in a bit more production. As recently in 2014, batters put up a .252 batting average on grounders. Then came the rise of the defensive shift, a now ubiquitous practice. Suddenly, those sharp grounders that scooted through the infield became easy outs, with fielders positioned differently for each batter.


So hitters responded, aided by burgeoning technology that enabled them to measure previously unmeasurable metrics like exit velocity and launch angle. Good teams, like the four currently competing for a championship, realized that run production happens in the air. Not lazy fly balls, which result in an out nearly 100% of the time, but in the air nonetheless, whether a line-drive single or a towering home run.



“We talk about making hard, consistent contact on a line, on a good angle,” Astros general manager James Click said. “With all this technology coming on board, it allows us to be much more nuanced in our assessment of things.”


The “fly-ball revolution” quickly faced some pushback, as all innovations in baseball do, with some critics blaming the phenomenon for the seemingly unending rise in strikeouts across the sport.


The teams playing right now prove otherwise. Three of the four squads in the two championship series ranked in the bottom third of baseball in strikeout rate. No team in the majors besides the Astros struck out in fewer than 20% of their plate appearances.


What all of these do is score—a lot. The Astros led the majors in run and batting average, while ranking second in OPS. The Dodgers and Red Sox were fourth and fifth in runs, respectively. The Braves, Dodgers, Astros and Red Sox were all in the top 10 in home runs.


In a couple of weeks, one of these teams will launch its way to a championship.
 
Playoff baseball is a far different animal than regular season baseball.

A team would destroy its pitching trying to use it for 162 games as its used in short series baseball.
 
  • Love
Reactions: jup
Playoff baseball is a far different animal than regular season baseball.

A team would destroy its pitching trying to use it for 162 games as its used in short series baseball.
Tell that to Tampa.
 
There is always an exception that proves the rule.
 

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-13: "Backup Bash Brothers"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:11: "Clipping Bucks."
Top