My note to Cubs batters

PLEASE stop watching strikes that are right down the middle. Particularly when you have two strikes already.

That thing on your shoulder is called a bat, use it.

Thank you

Twinndaddy said:

PLEASE stop watching strikes that are right down the middle. Particularly when you have two strikes already.

That thing on your shoulder is called a bat, use it.

Thank you

Click to expand...

Captain Obvious

Twinndaddy said:

PLEASE stop watching strikes that are right down the middle. Particularly when you have two strikes already.

That thing on your shoulder is called a bat, use it.

Thank you

Click to expand...

Yep. The thing that I recall so much about the '16 team was how they would grind at-bats; if a pitch was anywhere near the strike zone, it was either hit fair (often for a base hit), or at the very least fouled off. Fuck, even last year I recall Jon Jay running off several 10+ pitch at-bats.

This year, many of the same players are just sitting and watching with two strikes while pitches in the zone go by and they get rung up. At least, more often than they did over the past couple of seasons.

I wonder if this is something that Chili Davis is preaching? "If you can't barrel the pitch, don't swing at it"...? I'd rather see the guys fouling off pitches and forcing the pitcher to keep throwing, because pitchers make mistakes the more they have to throw in a given at-bat. It just seems to me that it's better to foul off the pitches you can't barrel than to just watch them sail on by and hope you don't get rung up just standing there, looking like an idiot...

There are pitchers out there that are throwing the best pitch, maybe the only good pitch a hitter will see on the first pitch, because it seems the patience is being preached more than getting hits. At least that is what I see. Sometimes the cubs jump on it and score double digit runs, mainly because that pitcher starts trying to make the cub batter chase that first one out of the zone and guess what, they are ahead in the count. Its a real fine line, but you see when Javy drives the ball down the right field line, that is where his head is going, its not like he is swinging late and hitting one off the end of the bat.

It really starts from the top down, and I dont mean the lineup. When Rizzo and KB go the other way, other players do as well. Our problem is the other guys are the ones definitely going the other way on their own. When the top guys start this team will be impossible. I always say, take two swings to try to knock the ball out or thru people, but you get to two strikes, protecting and spoiling pitches is a true gift.