Well, Kershaw is an authority on both bush league and playoff failures, so I have to respect his opinion on this one.
Oh dude, get after it!! While you're at it, might as well start at the beginning and watch all the Coen Bros. Edit: ah ok, sounds like you got it covered. Watched Barton Fink recently...
I get the feeling in every game that there has not been preparing hitters meeting ever. Even with off day b4 guys show up for 1st inning like little leaguers "oh he throws loke that" and swing eyes closed like afraid the make AB longer. I use to feel players have some plan. Where and what to attack if they see it coming. Now it feels like many guys are stealing from the team and not doing the work for hitting as preparing and working to get pitchers pitch count up. It's not just getting SP out. There's difference between being 4th pitch or 24th pitch in the inning for the next batter. And when we have bases loaded, we manage to turn it almost always to hackfest and taking the pressure hurrying when actually pitcher has normally all the pressure especially when the AB gets deeper. Guys hit a homer with 40th try eyes closed without any work and Espada says great agressive work. When we win late on pitchers back and couple hard working guys walk and score late Espada says we had good patience today and complements opponents 10era SP who was tough again today. I don't know if this is more hitting coach or leadership (Espada) problem. Ofcourse with powerful lineup we would win anyway with this pitching but we don't have it. Reminds me bit of Verlander going to Mets and making known right away that analytics and pitching dep.is full of s**t. B4 Stearns had implemented what he wanted to do. Would we need someone real name player from winning team to come and say wtf you are doing here!?
Hack at the first pitch seems to be our only philosophy here. We damn sure don't scout the opposing pitcher.
Yeah, there's no way this is true. As for the hack at the first pitch philosophy, here is why most of our lineup does it: Jeremy Pena: 1.129 OPS on the first pitch; .819 OPS after 0-1 count Jake Meyers: .984 OPS on the first pitch; .562 OPS after 0-1 count Yainer: .743 OPS on the first pitch (career is 1.088 OPS); .589 after 0-1 count (career is .688 OPS) Altuve's numbers suck pretty much across the board but for his career he has a .946 OPS on the 1st pitch; and a .688 after 0-1 count Across the MLB this season, players have a .923 OPS on the first pitch and a .597 OPS after an 0-1 count. This is the reason we have the philosophy of hacking at the first pitch - it's often the best pitch you are going to see and your chances of being successful diminish significantly once you are down 0-1 in the count.
but not all 1st pitches taken will be strikes. not sure where you got these stats from but are there stats showing OPS after first pitch in general (whether count is 1-0 or 0-1).. thanks
Correct and swinging at a ball on the first pitch is obviously a mistake. My point is if the pitch is a strike then you should be swinging at it because allowing it to go by and giving the pitcher a strike and an 0-1 count doesn't bode well for your chances. That is what people on here are complaining about...our guys putting the ball in play on the 1st pitch and making an out. That being said, to answer your question, OPS across the entire MLB is .683 after the first pitch (i.e. all other counts).
I'll follow this up by saying there might be certain situations where it makes sense to try to drive a pitcher's pitch count up. For example, a great starter on a team with a terrible bullpen. In general though, most teams have 3+ guys in their pen with great stuff - hell even the White Sox brought in a guy throwing absolute gas last night. You are generally better off facing the starter for a 3rd time than you are facing a team's bullpen so making outs on the first pitch really isn't an issue.
I would be suprised if my ability and strenght to hop with my left leg would improve greatly if I would hop only with my right leg for a year . Have to wonder about couple things. 1. How this will work out when opposing team knows this aproach 100% and SP prepares to face same 9 guys multiple times. One result might be not scoring 1st half of the games and only getting to bullpen if that would happen....sometimes. Getting quick outs ofcourse puts the bullpen further n further. 2. How would numbers change after first pitch if guys would be only semiambushing legit their own scouted superhotzone 1 pitch and would also put effort to longer AB's and had some other plan. It looks like many guys are using the 1st pitch aproach whole AB even when they swing n miss 1st. I mean trying desperately to get the ball in play as fast as possible and at these sit.pitchers might not wanna throw anyhing hittable also affecting results. So while stats might say the 1st pitch or nothing is the right way, it has to be atleast partly result of the aproach also in negative way on later pitches. It is also possible that this group of hitters is at this moment so bad that any other aproach can't be taken. Not picking a fight over this. It's just horrible to watch 50 games of being down without pulse most of the game and hope someone runs into one with reliever. So maybe Im just demanding change for my own pleasure . We are heading for a wildcard round 2 game lottery anyway so maybe just getting hot right time needed.
I don't have the data to determine how teams are pitching us compared to other teams (i.e. what % of first pitch breaking balls are we seeing compared to the league, the % it's a strike in the zone, etc.) so can't give you a definite answer there. The opposing pitchers know the advantage of getting ahead in the count though so unless our guys are just swinging out of control at balls on the first pitch, they really can't do anything about it. The issue isn't our strategy - it's the players filling out the lineup card. Walker has no business hitting cleanup this season but he's been there pretty much every game. Altuve has declined and shouldn't be hitting 3rd either. We have zero impact lefty bats right now in the lineup and are susceptible to good RHP pitching.
