Brownie19

Yeah but there's a trend league wide to throw more and more breaking balls. Good hitters have adjusted and stopped swinging at them. I guess you could argue that Grichuk's always see a ton of breaking balls off the plate because everyone knows he can't layoff...and so you shouldn't expect much change. That could be true (is there somewhere you can see the pitch types against for hitters?). What's also changed though is the use of high fastballs. He seems to like those too and we all know that usage has spiked to counter the launch angle revolution.

If only Dillon Maples could throw strikes. He throws that slider 60+% of the time...might might explain his 10+ BB%.

oh sorry - I don't care about new thread / existing thread discussion. I probably agree with you - dump it in here. My point is that I think he has a point.

He's not saying those bigger issues are all on Charlie - instead noting that instead of picking on the small stuff - maybe we should be looking at some of the bigger issues that are developing. I don't think he's wrong. From what I've seen and more importantly heard from Charlie - I do question whether he has the proper mindset to lead this team forward. While he seems like a great guy, he seems to have a very old school mentality - one I hope doesn't propagate through the team and organization and set us back. We've read articles from other organizations who didn't fully embrace the advances statistics until very recently (Barnhart talks about how the previous Reds staff didn't embrace it here - https://blogs.fangraphs.com/sunday-notes-tucker-barnhart-is-embracing-data-because-now-he-can/). It appears the organization that were behind the trend were generally unsuccessful. The FO has seemingly embraced players who hit the ball hard, but have no patience or approach at the plate. They obviously felt there was value to be had with that type of player. The recent increase in high fastballs and more breaking balls out of the zone may expose this type of player (even more) - rendering those players useless. It appears there are some flaws in the system that need to be addressed.....ones that are significantly more important than whether Charlie is pinch running for Vladdy.

The project systems haven't factored in the increased use of breaking balls outside of the zone across baseball. That, combined with Grichuk's inability to take a breaking ball off the plate means he's f***ed.

Now we are talking about Ohtani returning and how he'll DH. They said Pujols will have to play 1st. Tabby suggests Pujols and Bour may platoon and Buck scoffs at him and says the HOFer Pujols will play first, he won't be on the bench. Bour isn't hitting that well anyway.... f*** ME guys.

Funny listening to Buck and Tabby talk about Pujols like he's still this elite hitter with all kinds of talent. I don't expect them to disrespect him by calling him s*** (even though that's what he is now)...but they are laying it on thick like they have no idea he's been washed up for the past 2-3 years.

I mean it certainly appears that Charlie shoots from the hip, goes with his gut, or what god told him to do. I guess that means that while standing in the dugout with no information at his fingertips, he could randomly say "nah - that f***ing video guy who's looking at s*** in slow motion - he's stupid - he doesn't know what he's talking about...we shouldn't challenge" I wouldn't put that past Charlie - but it didn't happen this time.

I should have known better than to complicate matters so much. I assumed you meant he should hit ahead of Smoak because of lineup protection (sounds like something you'd still believe in). Although it doesn't really exist, I thought I'd at least point out that Drury is smoldering hit right now...pitchers can't want to face him right now.....yet - amazingly....that fact isn't helping Vladdy...who would have thought?

Lineup protection isn't a thing man... I gotta ask - do you love listening to Buck and Tabby? they seem like you're type of people

Will Buck and Tabby be sucking Galvis's cock when he's back to an 85 wRC+ hitter?

Because protection? He has Drury behind him. Drury's about as hot a hitter as there is in baseball right now.

Tellez sucks. Pitchers have adjusted...he needs to make adjustments.

That Fangraph article suggested that we are seeing more and more offspeed pitches outside of the zone. Hitters are countering this by laying off more pitches out of the zone...making them bring the fastball in the zone, which they crush. Grichuk hasn't got the memo....probably doesn't have that ability. He swings hard and runs into a pitch every now and then.

exactly...so why use the opener? I guess it still aligns it so your long guy only faces the top of the order once or twice.... C'mon Stro..get out of this.

Why would they use a right handed opener when we have Galvis, Smoak and Tellez hitting 1st, 3rd and 4th?

and now these two old f***s are joking about how Galvis is a great hitter because he has a flat swing....Buck says "no launch angle" while giggling...Tabby says "no" like only idiots think or talk about launch angles.

Where's the GDT boys? (time to morph into just a single thread per series?) Tabby is talking about launch angle!!! f*** me. Basically he said Drury was trying to create too much launch angle at the start of the season and is now hitting home runs because he flattened out his swing. Then he said something about having more time to see the ball (which obviously has nothing to do with launch angle). It was a riveting bit of insight.

Dude - I FAP'd over his videos on page 3. What a let down. Jung and Carrol sound interesting.

Jesus - fangraphs has Will Holland at 111, listed as a 2nd baseman.

Did he edit the tweet? I don't see congratulations. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Vladdy is religious. Too much time in a developing country.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/how-hitters-are-fighting-back-against-rising-strikeouts/ I thought that was a decent read. One issue I see is the Jays have a lot of guys who are free swingers [Randel, Teo, Drury, Galvis, Urena, Gurriel, McKinney (the version we got it seems)]. It seemed at the time that as long as they hit the ball hard - they could still produce and it didn't matter that they had no eye at the plate. However, as pitchers continue to improve - this could be a pretty significant issue for these types of hitters...they may fall behind as hitters with more patient lay off the increase/improved offspeed pitches and make pitchers bring the ball in the zone where they can handle it.

Is that because Kirk is on it?

Shorter outings (avoiding 3rd time through the order) for starters, combined with higher usage for relievers - combined with good old fashion luck would be my guess.

So juiced balls at the MLB level...they're using those juiced balls in AAA now and offense is exploding. I guess this would explain why some hitters are hitting better at the MLB level than they did in AA/AAA? or at least why there's less of a drop off (better pitching/defense will counter the results of the juicier ball). On the flip side. AA & AAA should be getting destroyed... Interesting stuff guys - thanks for learning me. That's why I'm here.